Transformers Titan: Escalation
by kira444
Summary: Volume 2 of Transformers Titan. The War for Terra escalates as new allies and enemies enter the fray while existing ones push themselves to the limit to gain the upper hand. The stakes are raised as Autobots, Decepticons and humans are drawn deeper into this war of blood and energon. (Revision!)
1. The Plague part 1

Transformers Titan

Escalation

Chapter 1-The Plague part 1

Megatron of Tarn, leader of the Decepticons, sat on his mighty throne of black metal and smooth onyx in silence, contemplating his current situation. His large, imposing silver and black form was still as a statue, his only movement being the constant tapping of his finger on his arm rest. He sat on the darkened bridge of his warship, the Nemesis for about an hour now, all by himself, left alone with his thoughts. The large hole in the roof was uncovered, and sunlight shown down upon him, glinting off his armor. He looked like a king sitting in the heart of a ruined castle, plagued by his thoughts and worries-but Megatron had no worries.

Three weeks passed since the chaotic battle against the Cardinals, powerful members of a race of living statues who inhabited Terra in ancient times. The Cardinal known as Sapientia had attacked the island itself after severely damaging the Nemesis en route, which left the ship stuck on the beach just feet away from the main base built into the only mountain on the island. Repairs were still being done on the ship and it wasn't looking very good for the mighty warship.

Sapientia's first attack tore through the right side of the Nemesis, right near the reactor core, their main source of power and rupturing a lot of crucial power lines that transferred energy to the rest of the ship. Now the ship was running on reserve power gathered from high profile solar units installed throughout the ship's armored hull. The energon storage vault also took a hit, and almost a ton of energon detonated in the blast, leaving a gaping hole in the side of the ship that just looked garish when fully exposed in the sun. The bridge wasn't as damaged but a stray blast caused the communication and navigation systems were running at half capacity. Not to mention the medibay wasn't looking too good either, least of all the CR chambers.

The Decepticons had been working day and night to get their main source of transportation on the planet up to working condition, but it was a slow process thanks to the massive energy requirements and need for materials. Now three weeks later they were making some leeway in fixing the ship.

Megatron had his moment to rage, shouting and blasting away at Sapientia's corpse to vent his anger. Now that the storm had passed, he had time to think. Satellite coverage showed that another Cardinal had ravaged Osea and the Autobots battled it with their own share of difficulty, though he had no idea if they were in as sorry a state as his team was. That being said, Decepticon operations on this planet were severely set back because of this incursion and it would take a lot of time and resources to get things back to tip-top shape. All because of those accursed dolems.

What were they? Where did they come from? What quarrel did they have with his kind? So many questions and no answers in sight. The frustration of it all only made Megatron angry again, but he quelled his rage. He was done having a tantrum, now he needed to get down to business.

"Doctor in the house." Knockout announced as he entered the bridge with a datapad in hand.

"How are the repairs going, Knockout?" Megatron asked.

"Well, the ship's outer hull is holding thanks to the welding job Search and Cannon did on it, and thanks to our fliers, we're slowly replenishing our energon stocks." Knockout reported. "But the ship's still running on reserve power and may be like that for some time."

"What about the power source Soundwave stole from the humans?" Megatron inquired, referring to the experimental reactor Soundwave stole from a secret military base a few months ago. It was an experimental power source that relied on clean methods to produce energy, still in the development phase when the base was raided.

Megatron had Soundwave look into the group that made the reactor, curious as to how the humans were able to make something so advanced. Unfortunately, there was little to go on aside from a name, Skywatch, and there weren't any official records on such a group existing, which led the investigation to a dead end.

Knockout grimaced and fidgeted in place. Megatron narrowed his eyes and spun his throne around to fully face the medic.

"My liege, there are some…" Knockout thought of a proper word to use to avoid infuriating his already agitated leader. "Complications we're having with the generator."

"What complications?" Megatron growled, slowly getting up from his throne. "You've had more than enough time to get this done! That generator is the only thing that's keeping this ship from being detected by the Autobots! My flagship sitting in the dirt because of this good for nothing planet! How have you not made any progress by now?"

"A thousand apologies, Lord Megatron. The reactor the humans were working on is extremely unstable and volatile, using radioactive elements. Nuclear elements. We can't extract it from the casing and use its power without the risk of causing a meltdown and irradiating the island. As it is, Soundwave had to stop to avoid the danger of a system-wide shutdown from the microwave emissions it was radiating."

Megatron glared down at Knockout before scoffing and sitting back on his throne. "Fine then, half your experiments on the reactor until we can find a way to safely extract the elements from it. Now get out of my sight."

Knockout bowed and made his way to the door. Megatron rotated his throne around and went back to his wandering thoughts.

'How did things go so wrong? We were doing so well, and it all just goes up in flames.' Megatron gripped the arms of his throne tightly and looked at the stasis field holding a golden disk within. 'Project Stargate will come to fruition and the Autobots will fall-with this world as their grave!'

XXXXXX

After the harrowing battle against the Cardinal Temperantia during one of the worst storms in Osea's history, the Autobots were making the most of this calm period they had in the weeks following the battle. With Decepticon activity at an all time low, the Autobots spent their time harvesting energon and repairing the ship that took serious damage against the Cardinal. Everyone took part in repairing the ship that did its best against the powerful being that sought to destroy them, but time and resources were in short supply. But things were going along smoothly so far, and now everyone was making the most of their time.

"You worked with Starscream?" Darren whistled.

"Yup. We were tight like that," Skyfire bragged, though it wasn't something that she should be doing when Starscream was the topic of discussion. "I was THE fastest flyer in the Cybertron Aerospace Force, and he was like, third, maybe fourth. Rose up through the ranks like a badass, and I even scored with Starscream's sister, the current Seeker commander."

"Starscream has a sister?" Annie blanched. As if one Starscream wasn't bad enough.

"No, had a sister." Skyfire corrected her. "She died during the Decepticon Uprising when the Seekers took over Vos. Damn shame too, since she was pretty cool to hang out with."

"Wasn't Deadscream a complete psychopath?" Arcee asked. She heard horror stories about the female Seeker with the devil's grin, and almost all of them were probably true.

"I said cool, not safe." Skyfire said.

This was how the crew of the Ark was spending their free time, doing mundane things like talking about the past and informing the children on what Cybertron was like before the war. Skyfire, Arcee, Ratchet and Bulkhead were in the rec room with the kids sitting on the massive table as the Bots shared a drink with each other. At the moment, Skyfire had just finished describing her time as a Seeker.

"I thought the Seekers were all Decepticons." Annie said.

"Actually, the Seekers made up the bulk of Cybertron's aerospace force." Gina said. "Most of the Seekers joined the Decepticons with Starscream, but a few defected to the Autobots."

"But those guys were few and far in between. You'll rarely find Autobot flyers who were born in Vos and served in the Seekers." Skyfire said, looking down at Gina. "Where'd you learn that, blondie?"

"Ratchet," Gina chirped and smiled at the medic. "He teaches me everything he can about Cybertron, even your language."

"Grumpy old Ratchet's teaching you things? No way!" Jazz laughed. Ratchet elbowed him sharply and kept drinking his diluted Engex.

"So Skyfire was a Seeker ace, Bulkhead was a construction worker, what about you, Arcee?" Darren asked the pink femme. "You do anything special before the war?"

"Well, I wasn't anything special like an explorer or a pilot." Arcee smiled and twirled her straw as she thought back to fond memories. "I lived in Ky-Alexia, a coastal city. I worked for my city's senator as his security detail. It was an easy job, since barely anything happened in Ky-Alexia. Honestly, it was a boring job. Great pay, though."

"And while Cee was chillin' by the sea, I was a cultural investigator." Jazz smiled. "My job had me going all over the planet to investigate elements of cybertronian culture, both common and uncommon."

"Like a journalist, basically." Darren said.

"Kinda." Jazz shrugged.

"I'm not surprised considering how fast you've assimilated terran culture." Gina smiled.

"With all that being said, what was Optimus like in his young blood days?" Annie asked, thoroughly invested in the conversation. "Was he the big mech living it large on Cybertron."

"Nope." Jazz said. "He was a cop."

"Say what?" All three children said simultaneously.

"Before Optimus became a Prime, he was a police officer in the Rodion Police Department."

"Optimus wasn't always a Prime?" Gina inquired, making note of that.

"One does not simply become a Prime. It's a title you earn." Ratchet explained. "A Prime is someone who symbolizes our race as a whole in the eyes of Primus, our creator god. They are chosen to embody the core ideals of cybertronian society and represent the people."

"Tell that to Sentinel and Zeta." Bulkhead muttered.

"So Optimus Prime used to be a member of the fuzz." Annie hummed and smirked. "How good was he?"

"Back in the day, they used to call him "supercop", because of his legendary track record." Jazz replied. "he was one of the best on the force and had a habit of jumping on criminals like a bomber plane making a landing."

"Wow," Darren breathed. "So Optimus has been helping people before the war even started."

"Yes, he has." Ratchet replied, giving a wistful smile. "You could say that it's all he knows what do to these days."

XXXXXX

After another week of no Decepticon activity, Optimus started to get worried. Megatron never stayed quiet for long unless they were spending their time focused on other things-namely subjects that were large scale and required their full attention. The only question was…what were they planning?

The answer came to him in pieces. A series of thefts occurred all over the country. Science and research centers were robbed of certain pieces of high tech components and any witnesses were mercilessly cut down. Evidence suggested that terrorism was the main reason, perpetrate by Karaba agents. But this was just a misleading reason to convict the already infamous esper terrorist group-the real thieves were far more dangerous.

"Optimus, we got another one." Sparkplug said as Optimus entered the computer hub.

"Another theft?"

"Yes, though this one isn't as covert as the others." Sparkplug brought up security footage of a large, blue robot crouched inside the middle of a lab.

"Soundwave." Optimus said in a hard tone. "What did he steal?"

"A phase conductor." Sparkplug answered. "This makes the fourth theft in two weeks. What is Megatron planning?"

Optimus thought for a moment. "Bring up a list of what was stolen so far."

Teletran-1 brought forth a list of the items the Decepticons had stolen. Optimus and sparkplug looked at the list closely and noticed that they were the only things stolen from their respective labs and development sites. Based on what they saw, they deduced that Megatron was trying to build something big using human technology but augmented by cybertronian alterations.

"Plasma injector, neutron shield, tessaract, and more recently the phase conductor." Sparkplug rubbed his chin. "I don't get what he's trying to achieve here."

"Neither do I, but it doesn't put me at ease knowing that one of the components Megatron stole has the power to create a singularity."

XXXXXX

Soundwave and Knockout walked out of the ground bridge into a forest located somewhere in central Emmeria. It was an abrupt request (order) that Soundwave gave Knockout before dragging the medic to the location without so much as a briefing. Knockout was only inclined to even listen to Soundwave by duty alone, as being left alone with a mech known for blackmailing his own comrades to remain on top of the Decepticon hierarchy wasn't an ideal situation to be stuck in.

"So are you going to tell me what we're doing here or am I going to be stuck out here in the cold playing charades?" Knockout asked annoyed. All he got was a glance from Soundwave before he continued on his way, wordlessly beckoning Knockout to follow.

'How did I get stuck playing scavenger hunt with the galaxy's most unresponsive mime?' Knockout thought.

"Don't take it personally, the boss always gets like this when something unexpected comes up." Rumble said. "You'll get used to it."

"No, I won't get used to it. I'm not very keen on having my paint job corroded by all this damn humidity because you bozos won't tell me why we're slumming it out in the middle of nowhere!" Knockout yelled.

"Relax, Knockout. You know the boss never does anything without a reason." Frenzy said, grinning as if he knew the punch line to a joke he didn't understand.

'That's what worries me.' Knockout grimaced. Still, he kept following the trio, knowing that it must be important if Soundwave was dragging him all the way out here.

Soundwave led him to the base of a large hill at the edge of the forest, where it was dark and the trees blocked out the sun. Laserbeak, one of Soundwave's avian cassette spies, jumped off the branch and landed on his master's shoulder.

"I found it, Soundwave." Laserbeak squawked. "It's right over there." He jerked his beak to the largest tree near the hill.

"What's he talking about?" Knockout asked.

"You will see." Soundwave said and pointed to the tree. "Rumble, Frenzy, excavate the site."

Rumble ran over to the tree and formed his arms into his pile drivers, slamming the drums into the ground and generating localized vibrations that tore up the ground and uprooted the trees in front of him. Frenzy followed up by drilling into the soil, burrowing deeper into the earth nonstop. He went deeper and deeper for the next few minutes until he felt his drills hit something metallic and pushed the dirt away, calling out to the larger Cons topside.

Soundwave and Knockout walked over to the hole and looked inside. Though it was hard to gauge Soundwave's expression, but Knockout's expression went from bored to surprise within seconds.

"Lord Megatron is going to love this." Knockout grinned.

XXXXXX

"Optimus, Prowl, Teletran-1 just detected a signal." Ratchet reported from his spot by the Teletran-1 terminal. Optimus and Prowl looked up from the report they were reading and went over to the medic's side.

"What is it, Ratchet?" Prowl asked.

"A locator beacon of Decepticon origin. But…it's old." Ratchet narrowed his eyes in worry. "Very old."

Teletran-1 searched its databanks on the signal being displayed. It took a couple of minutes, but the computer determined a solid match. When the three Autobots saw the results, they were both shocked and worried at the implications that arose from this discovery. The signal matched a name that none of them thought they would ever see again since the early days of the war, one of the bloodiest phases of the Great War to some.

"D-16."

The rest of Team Prime, the Minicons and the humans were surprised when the klaxon alarm went off and Optimus' voice ordered all personnel on deck to assemble in the command center. Hearing the urgency in Prime's voice held everyone's questions at bay as they hurried to the command center, where Optimus and Prowl stood with deadly serious expressions that only deepened their worries.

"What's the situation, Prime?" Ironhide asked.

"Teletran-1 just located a Decepticon signal beacon." Optimus said. "It's an old signal that hasn't been used in thousands of years until now. It came from a cache of D-16."

Most of the Autobots were visibly shocked by this news, though the Minicons, children and Bumblebee looked confused at the odd reactions.

"D-16? What's that?" Gina asked.

"No clue. I've never heard of it." Bumblebee admitted.

"D-16, also known as the Hate Plague, was a chemical weapon developed by the Decepticon Biological Warfare program." Prowl explained. "This occurred before you were born, Bumblebee. It was deployed during the early stages of the War for Cybertron, during the trench wars at the Orbital Torus States."

"The Hate Plague was designed to increase the infected victim's brainwaves to dangerous levels and induce a state of artificially enhanced aggression." Ratchet said. "They were stricken with an uncontrollable rage that caused them to attack anything and everything in sense, even one's own reflection. Those first few days of the Torus skirmishes were…well, bloody would be an understatement."

"I'm guessing since it isn't around anymore, it didn't go very well for the Cons?" Bumblebee noted.

"The Hate Plague was indiscriminate in who it infected and Megatron was forced to decommission the project after losing too many soldiers to it in the Torus States. I had biohazard teams collect what they could of the virus and jettison it into space, far from Cybertron so that no one could ever use it as a weapon again. It hasn't been found since our war reached space and we've forgotten about it…until now." Optimus shook his head. "I never thought I would end up on Terra of all places."

"This planet is just a magnet for trouble, huh?" Skyfire quipped and earned an elbow in the side from Arcee. "What? It's true!"

"If Megatron gets his hands on that plague, then he could unleash it on Terra and have humanity tear itself apart!" Darren gasped.

Annie snorted. "Like we aren't doing that already."

"Then we need to act quickly before Megatron has a chance to mobilize his forces." Prowl said.

"Autobots, this is a Code Red emergency. I know you all are still recovering from our battle against the dolems, but if Megatron gets the D-16 container, then we've lost this battle before it's begun. Billions of lives will be lost, and that is unacceptable." Optimus said. "We need to retrieve that container at all costs; hence we will be staging an all out assault on the Decepticons to keep it out of their hands."

"Yes! Finally we get some action!" Annie cheered and ran to suit up, but Bulkhead stopped her.

"You kids are staying here." Bulkhead told them, gaining disappointed groans from the kids.

"Seriously, Bulk? We can help too. Have you not seen how much ass we kick?" Annie said.

"This is different, Annie. A lot is riding on our success and we don't have any room for error here." Prowl said, then added, "No one is questioning you ability to help. But we're dealing with highly dangerous chemical weapons that can detrimental to humans and cybertronians alike."

"But our talos can protect us." Gina said, but Optimus put his foot down.

"We need you to stay here, Gina. You and the Minicons must stay behind. In case…" Optimus paused and sighed. "Just remain in the Ark for now, until we require your aid. Please know that this is a delicate situation."

The way he said this, the way everyone looked, killed anymore protests the children had. They knew Optimus acknowledged the added protection and firepower their talos gave them. And Gina understood what was left unsaid; if things went wrong and the Autobots were taken out of commission, then it would be up to them to protect the Ark and the Minicons. They were the last line of defense.

"Autobots, weaponize and assemble in the shuttle bay." Optimus ordered. "We're going in hard."

XXXXXX

"Gina, a word please."

Gina paused and looked up at the towering Autobot leader. Darren caught Prime's glance and dragged Annie away despite her protests, leaving them alone in the hallway.

"Yes, Optimus?"

Optimus took a look around to make sure that they were truly alone before kneeling down to her. He reached into his hip compartment and took out a small, flat object. It was golden and Gina thought it looked like some kind of high-tech key card, but something about it made it more special.

"I want you to have this, Gina. Take care of it for me until my return." Optimus said.

"What is it?" Gina asked softly.

"It's…a memento from my teacher, Alpha Trion. He gave this to me not long after I became a Prime, and I want you to keep it safe."

"You're giving something this important to me? Isn't that something more suited for Jazz or Ironhide?" Gina said nervously. This was a bit hard to wrap her head around. "They're more capable of keeping it safe than I am."

"Gina, over the past year, I have watched you and your friends grow into exceptional people. You are an intelligent, responsible girl with an appreciation for the world around you and what history has to offer. Your efforts to help us have been greatly welcome to us all, even Prowl, though he chooses not to show his gratitude." Optimus held the key-card out to Gina. "You've placed your trust in me to keep you safe, and now I'm placing my trust in you."

Gina didn't know what to say. She was touched by Optimus' faith in her and that he was willing to entrust such an important thing to her. She never thought that any of the Autobots saw her as something other than some nerdy girl with a big mouth always pestering them for info on their race and their world (she was secretly afraid they'd get tired of her and just tell her to shut up one day). She swallowed hard and nodded mutely, reaching up to the key card. As soon as her fingers touched the smooth metal, the key card began to fold into itself, reconfiguring until it was small enough to fit in her hand. Gina took it from Prime's fingers and studied it.

"I'll take good care of it, Optimus." Gina said seriously. "I promise."

"I know you will." Optimus said confidently.

They shared one final glance with each other, having said what they needed to without really speaking. Optimus gave her a parting nod before standing back up and walking away. Gina watched the Autobot leader leave and struggled not to think on her worries for this mission. She was afraid that all this talk about trust with this dangerous mission coming up was a bit of foreshadowing that something was going to go wrong…like Optimus wasn't planning on coming back.

XXXXXX

"Why is this thing so heavy?" Knockout grunted as he and Soundwave struggled to lift the container, which was large than the two of them combined, out of the ground. "Couldn't we have just called Blackout for this?"

"Don't be getting' snippy because you're too weak to get your peds dirty." Rumble said. He was also helping the two larger mechs move the container with his strong arms. "A little heavy lifting will do you some good."

Knockout sneered down at the little mech. "And I think a little facial make-over from my drill will be just as beneficial to you-ah!"

Knockout was hit in the chest by an ion blast that blasted him into a dirty pond. Soundwave and his proxies saw Optimus and his Autobots emerging from a ground bridge. They all had their weapons pointed at them as they slowly advanced on the three Cons.

"Decepticons, step away from the container." Optimus ordered. "That container is Autobot property."

"Typical of a Prime to lay claim to something that is not theirs."

Another ground bridge appeared and this time, it was Megatron who stepped out of it, along with most of his Decepticon warriors as they took defensive positions in front of Soundwave. Megatron scowled and leveled his fusion cannon at Prime, who aimed his ion cannon at the Decepticon leader in return.

"The only thing you own here is the container that holds the virus. The D-12 contagion is mine to do with as I see fit." Megatron growled.

"Not anymore it is, Megatron." Optimus replied.

Silence fell across the area as both factions entered tense stand-off. Weapons were charged, but no one fired a shot without their leaders' orders. Everyone was well aware that a stray bolt could breach the container and everyone present would be in danger. With how much was riding on this battle, everyone was tense. Who fired the first shot would be decided by the leaders. Then…

"Autobots/Decepticons," Optimus and Megatron yelled. "Attack!"

XXXXXX

Back in the Ark, the children were waiting anxiously for news of the ongoing battle. It was always tense when the Autobots and Decepticons clashed, especially over the Minicons, but the stakes here were much higher, and the potential for disaster was great. It was even harder for them to wait knowing they had the firepower to make a difference.

"Annie could you stop pacing? You're making me nervous." Darren said.

"We should be out there, Gina. We could help. The Autobots know that." Annie said, not stopping her pacing at all. Sureshock got up and put a hand on Annie's shoulder.

"Annie, Optimus knows what he's doing." She said. "Have faith in him."

"Even Optimus can make mistakes." Annie said, throwing the Minicon's hands off her. "We'd have a better chance of winning if we fight together."

"I agree, this isn't the time to be sitting on the sidelines." Grindor said. "We've got a chemical weapon in the hands of despots here!"

"It's because there's chemical weapons that Optimus doesn't want us involved." High Wire said. "A million things can go wrong if that container is breached. There was no cure for the Hate Plague and if any of you got infected, Primus knows how things could turn out."

"I know, but…"Annie sighed and sat back down. Darren put an arm around his sister. "What if something happens? I know they're trained soldiers and all that, but after Temperantia…"

"No one will die." Darren said. "The Autobots have been fighting the Cons longer than Terra has even existed. They know what they're doing. Compared to fighting Temperantia, this is nothing."

"I guess so." She shrugged.

Gina, while not visible showing it, was also worried about her friends. Her earlier conversation with Optimus rang through her mind as she fingered the key-card in her pocket.

XXXXXX

It was chaos…total war.

The once beautiful and lush glad had become a war torn battleground where Autobots and Decepticons were engaged in ferocious battles with laser blasts and missiles and bombs flying and dropping down from above. It was a clash of the titans, and the fate of Terra hung on who came out of this battle alive.

The sky was a mess of laser bolts and missiles flying every which way as Skyfire engaged in a dogfight with the Seeker trio. Starscream tried to shoot the Autobot down, but she easily dodged his attacks and returned fire with her machine gun. Starscream and Thundercracker dodged her bullets and converged on her, forcing her to also transform and fire her pulse cannons. She grazed Starscream, but hit Thundercracker in the wing.

"Skywarp, flank her!" Starscream yelled and pointed his null ray at Skyfire. At the same time, Skywarp teleported behind Skyfire and pointed his arm cannons at her back.

Skyfire shook her head and cut her boosters off, letting gravity take hold of her just as the two Cons fired at her. Having missed their shared target, Starscream got hit in the face with a barrage of laser blasts and Skywarp took a full powered null ray to the chest, which immediately shut down his systems and dropped him like a rock. Skyfire laughed at the stupidity of her former Seeker brothers, but saw Thundercracker flying at her. The blue Seeker clapped his hands and released a powerful sonic boom that hit Skyfire hard and knocked her into the trees, uprooting a few as she hit the ground.

Bumblebee and Wheeljack were fighting Barricade and Knockout; Barricade kept Bumblebee at bay with his gyro blades, dodging the electrical bolts fired from Bumblebee's stingers. He growled every time the scout would dance out of his reach and shoot at his legs or chest with those accursed stingers of his. Fighting the scout was always an infuriating experience for him.

"Stop playing around and fight me like a warrior!" Barricade growled.

"I'm not a warrior," Bumblebee smirked. "I'm just a scout." He threw some dirt into Barricade's face and threw a punch at his face.

Knockout was having a worse time than his partner in fighting Wheeljack. He only had his drill and saw as his weapons, along with an energon prod, the only real weapon that he knew how to use. Knockout, knowing full well how unpredictable Wheeljack was in a fight, kept him at a distance with a blaster rifle that he picked up from the armory. It wasn't a particularly dangerous weapon, but it did the job of keeping Wheeljack away from him.

"What's the matter, Knockout? Afraid that you'll damage that tacky finish of yours?" Wheeljack taunted.

"No, I'm just not dumb enough to fight you within striking distance." Knockout replied and fired his rifle. Wheeljack took cover behind a tree and pulled out two grenades.

"That's another mistake you made, Knockout. One of many!" Wheeljack yelled and threw a flash grenade at the medic. Knockout yelped as he was blinded by the intense flash and his optical sensors tried to deal with the sudden change in light. Wheeljack used this chance to run out of cover and charge at him.

Though blinded, Knockout heard Wheeljack's footsteps and spun his prod around his back, catching the engineer in the chest and electrocuted him violently. Wheeljack stumbled back and Knockout jumped on him, shifting his right hand into a drill and tried to gore the Autobot's head. Wheeljack kept him at bay, but also had to use one arm to keep the prod away from his face. Knockout grinned as the drill and prod neared Wheeljack's body, but just as both weapons almost reached the mech, Knockout was shot in the back by Bulkhead, who then proceeded to land a dozen hard punches to his face before kicking him away.

"You okay, Jackie?" Bulkhead asked, helping Wheeljack up.

"Yeah, thanks Bulk. He almost got me there." Wheeljack said.

"Don't let your guard down, Jackie. This battle is far from over." Bulkhead looked to his left and saw Rumble and Frenzy charging at them. "You got more of those missile shells on you?"

"Just tell me what you need and I'll shoot 'em." Wheeljack said and together they charged at the twins.

Flamewar, who stayed near the container, was fighting Jazz and Arcee. Dodging a strike from Jazz's bo staff, Flamewar grinned at her ex-lover.

"How sweet, you brought another partner for me to snuff." Flamewar said and brought out her blades. "I've been waiting for a chance to get you both back for last time."

"You're not touching anyone else, you glitch." Arcee hissed and drew her swords.

Flamewar leapt at Arcee, but was forced to perform a difficult maneuver in the air when Jazz also jumped at her and almost caught her in the face with a downward kick. She landed on the ground and tried to cut him with her blades, but he took out his Bo staff and blocked her strikes with ease, following up with a few blows to her chest and legs. Arcee jumped into the fight and swept Flamewar's legs from under her, punching her in the chest to knock her back. Flamewar rolled across the ground and transformed to her alt mode, driving across the ground at high speeds.

When she was close enough, she leapt into the air and returned to her humanoid configuration and kicked Jazz in the chest before slashing at Arcee, who leaned her head back and ran at her. Flamewar saw Arcee and Jazz running at her from both sides and she raised her arms to block her sister's sword and Jazz's staff with her blades before they could hit her from the top and bottom.

Meanwhile, Ironhide and Prowl faced Nightshade, who waited for them to make their move.

"So how are we going to do this?" Ironhide asked.

"Hit her from both angles." Prowl said. "I'll rush in and fight her close up."

"And I'll keep her on her toes with my guns." Ironhide grinned and pointed his cannons at her. "I can work with that."

Nightshade got tired of waiting and charged at them. Prowl raised his batons and rushed at her, swinging them at her head. She blocked them and unleashed a series of attacks at Prowl that quickly pushed him back. Ironhide took aim at her as she traded kicks with Prowl, but a missile hit his back knocked him into a dirty puddle. He spun around, a murderous glare on his face as he faced his attacker-the ever silent Soundwave, who had his concussion rifle pointed at his chest.

"That was your best shot?" Ironhide sneered. He leapt at Soundwave, firing both cannons, forcing Soundwave to dodge and fire three rockets from his shoulder launcher to shoot down the missiles Ironhide shot at him. Ironhide took out his tomahawk and swung it at his head, but Soundwave ducked under his axe and punched him in the chest. "You're going have to do better than that!"

Soundwave's right hand shifted into a radio dish and fired a sonic blast directly into Ironhide's chest plate, denting his armor and blasting the Autobot into a tree. Ironhide groaned and weakly got to his feet.

"All right, you did better." Ironhide grunted and waved Soundwave to come at him. "Can you do that again?"

With their soldiers fighting around them, Optimus and Megatron fought their own little dance of death. Their respective blades sent sparks into the air as they grinded against each other, and as they pushed against one another, they locked gazes.

"Why do you continue to fight, Prime?" Megatron asked, pushing against Optimus. "Why fight for a species as violent and worthless as them?"

"If you don't know the answer by now Megatron then there is no point in telling you!" Optimus said.

He kicked Megatron back and spun his axe around to bring it down on his in an arc. Megatron rolled to the side and stabbed forward, almost scratching Prime's window panes before his arm was knocked away and Optimus punched him in the jaw. Megatron stumbled back and glared at his nemesis, rubbing his jaw.

"It's been the same song and dance as always, Prime. You risk the lives of yourself and your troops defending some worthless species that'd sooner shoot you on sight than thank you for sparing them, while I waste valuable resources snuffing you good for nothing Autobots out across the galaxy." Megatron said. "Together we could achieve so much more, including the restoration of our planet. But only if we end this war here and now. Is the salvation of our people not worth a single world in the back alleys of space?"

"You'll never stop at one!" Optimus leapt forward and spun his axe, deflecting Megatron's sword strike and slicing a searing cut into the warlord's shoulder. "Terra and all who live on it are under my protection!"

"Then you will die with them!"

Megatron grabbed Prime's axe and punched him in the face. He then slashed his blade across Prime's chest and kicked him in the same spot with enough force to throw him a few feet away.

"Join them in extinction!" Megatron roared and pointed his fusion cannon at Optimus.

Bumblebee saw their battle from afar, but refrained from running to his leader's aid. But when he saw Megatron raise his fusion cannon, he wasted no time in running to help Optimus, hoping to reach him in time.

Megatron fired his fusion cannon and time seemed to slow down as the blast left the barrel and headed straight for Prime's head. Optimus prepared for the searing pain of the fusion blast blowing away his face and chest, but then he saw someone jump in front of him.

"Bumblebee!"

The blast hit Bumblebee in the torso and tore him apart. Everyone froze as Bumblebee was blasted in two, his lower body blown apart with his legs while his upper body crashed to the ground, sparks and energon spewing from where his legs were. Bumblebee was already fading into stasis lock from the shock the attack had on his body, and he went still on the ground.

Optimus stared at Bumblebee's body in shock, before he glared up at Megatron and charged at his nemesis. "MEGATRON!"

Optimus slammed into Megatron with the force of a bullet train, knocking him to the ground. he began pummeling Megatron's face and chest relentlessly, not giving him any room to counterattack. Nightshade came to her leader's aid and fired an arrow from Gandiva into Prime's back.

Optimus was blasted off Megatron, allowing Starscream to swoop in and fire two missiles at him that hit his leg and arm. Nightshade fired another arrow into his chest that finally took him out and threw him across the ground. Seeing this as an opportunity to retreat, Megatron pushed himself up and looked at Blackout, who was hovering above the area.

"Blackout, cover fire!" He yelled and called his forces. "Decepticons, break engagement and take cover!"

Powerlinking with his Minicon Cannon, Blackout transformed and slammed his fist into the ground, releasing a powerful sonic shockwave that hit everyone within his area of effect. The Decepticons quickly took cover the best they could, while the Autobots were hit with the full force of his attack. Soundwave and Barricade used the distraction to grab the container and pull it into the ground bridge Soundwave manifested. Megatron grabbed Optimus and dragged him over to the portal as he addressed the Autobots.

"As much as I'd like to stay and gloat, Autobots, I have work to do. But know that your contribution to the Decepticon cause will not be forgotten." Megatron said, smirking victoriously. "Soundwave, send the ground bridge to the construction site…it's time to witness our moment of victory!"

Megatron laughed as he dragged Optimus into the ground bridge with his team and the portal vanished, leaving behind the battle weary Autobots. Prowl and Jazz ran to Bumblebee's side and called the Ark.

"Ratchet, we need an immediate med evac!" Prowl ordered. "Bumblebee's in critical condition!"

There will be time for the Autobots to lament over losing their leader and the D-11 container, but they needed to focus on saving another one of their own. But this loss could spell the end of human society and the world as they know it.

XXXXXX

Optimus' battle axe sat on the table in the command center as the Autobots, Minicons and humans sat around waiting for news of Bumblebee's fate. Ratchet and Longarm were working hard in stabilizing the scout's condition, but they would only get word when the two were finished. In the meantime, Prowl was dead set on finding Optimus.

"Wheeljack, have you located Prime's signal yet?" Prowl asked.

"Not yet," Wheeljack was working at the Teletran-1 terminal trying to find his leader's energon signal. "I haven't found a trace of him yet. The Cons must be shielding his signal."

"Then try harder! You're the mechanic, you should have no problem getting over something like this!" Prowl growled.

"If you want to start, Arcee, then why don't you use some of your cyber-ninja skills to locate Prime?" He snapped. "If you don't have anything helpful to say then stay quiet."

"Your bullshit isn't helping, Prowl." Annie said.

"That's swell coming from a loose cannon." Prowl sneered.

"Don't talk to her like that!" Darren yelled. "None of this is helping anyone. If we keep fighting each other, then we'll lose."

"You shouldn't even be here. Despite what Prime says, you humans have absolutely no place in interfering with Autobot matters." Prowl said coldly. "This has nothing to do with you."

"Why don't you make us stay out of your business?" Darren sneered. "You talk big a lot, but can you back that shit up?"

Black particles flooded from Darren's body and coalesced around him to shape his black amalgam armor. A single flick made a piece of metal from the floor panel shoot up and zip past Prowl's face, leaving a small cut under his eye. The tactician glared down at Darren and stepped forward, but Jazz got in front of him and pushed him back.

You two need to cool off." Jazz said, his face dead serious. "This is not the time for that. We need to focus on how to find Optimus, not trying to kill each other."

"Kinda hard considering we don't have a damn clue to where Prime is!" Ironhide growled. "How the hell are we going to find the Nemesis?"

"He's not at the Nemesis." Bulkhead said. "Remember what Megatron said? They're at some kind of construction site."

"Yeah, he did mention that." Wheeljack said. "Perhaps it has something to do with those stolen components he's been pilfering over the past few weeks."

"Bucket-head probably took Optimus to where he's building his science project." Bulkhead said.

"No doubt it's something big." Ironhide said.

"Anything big will need a lot of power to operate." Arcee said. "And that means lots of energon."

"I'll have Teletran search for large energon deposits. If Megatron is building something big, then he'll need a raw fuel supply in close proximity." Wheeljack said.

"Get on it, Wheeljack." Prowl said and faced the monitor, turning his back on the team. "As for the rest of you, heal up and remain on standby. Once we find Prime, we're moving out immediately."

XXXXXX

When Optimus regained consciousness, the first thing he noticed that his limbs were restrained by something strong. The second thing was that he was strapped to something hard and smooth.

"Optimus, glad to have you with us again."

Megatron stepped into his view, smirking. Optimus noted, with a bit of satisfaction, that the Decepticon leader's face was still sporting the wounds from his earlier assault.

"Megatron." Optimus growled.

"Come now, Optimus, cheer up. You're about to witness my victory in this campaign."

"Even with the Hate Plague, you will never be able to infect the entire planet before the human's regroup their forces. And I know that you won't risk your own troops being infected as well."

"Even after all these cycles you still think small, Prime. The plague itself is just a means to an end. It's my secret project that will grant me my victory."

"Project?"

Megatron smiled and backed away. Optimus now had a clear view of what was before him. He could tell that the structure before him was old. He was chained to a boulder outside a collection of ancient stones arranged in some strange patter, covered in runes. Cables were hooked up to the stones and he saw Soundwave and Knockout working with a medium sized sphere that was emitting a steady amount of heat. It took Optimus a moment to realize why this place was so familiar.

This was Stonehenge, and the Decepticons were repurposing it into a makeshift space bridge.

* * *

 **Here is the first chapter of the revised Book 2! I'm really excited to fix this story, though not much to fix considering my writing got more polished as I had a better grasp of the story for this one when I first wrote it. Enjoy the story for those who are new here and please leave a review. Thanks for reading!**


	2. The Plague part 2

Chapter 2-The Plague part 2

Gina worked without pause at her computer, using her link with Teletran-1 to search as many possible sites where the Decepticons could be holding Optimus. An hour had passed since that ill-fated battle and the Autobots were no closer to finding their missing leader or learning about their wounded yellow scout. So many things were going wrong at once and the stress was starting to get to her.

"Gina, sweetheart, you need to rest." Sureshock said. "You're going to pass out if you keep at it like this."

"How can I rest when two of my friends are in trouble? Optimus is a prisoner and Bumblebee might die, I can't exactly get a good night's sleep with that on my mind." Gina said, taking off her glasses and rubbing her forehead."

"Gina," High Wire knelt down beside her. "Optimus is a strong mech, nothing is going to happen to him. And so is Bee. They're both going to be all right."

"But I doubt that they'll be happy to see you running yourself ragged looking for them." Darren said.

"I know, but I can't help but be antsy." Gina held her head in her hands. "Now I know how Annie felt when Bulkhead got hurt."

Annie just sat down next to the blonde and rubbed her shoulders to comfort her. Then Longarm came into the room, most of his body covered in drying energon and looking exhausted. The Autobots, Minicons and humans all crowded around him as they grilled him for information.

"Is Bee all right?"

"Will he live, Longarm?"

"Does he need a blood transfusion? I'm a type-A!" Annie yelled.

Longarm held up his arm for everyone to quiet down. "Bumblebee is finally stable, but he's in stasis lock. Ratchet is going to put him in the CR chamber for him to heal from his injuries before operating on his legs."

"How was the damage?" Jolt asked.

"Extensive and almost fatal. According to Ratchet, Megatron had blasted him near his waist, destroying his legs and nearly taking out his torso too. Any higher and we'd be short one Autobot today. Even still, we had to make sure that his Spark core wasn't breached. It was hard stuff, but we managed to save him."

A wave of relief washed over the entire team. Something was finally going for them today. Gina felt like crying, but an alert from her laptop got her attention.

"Guys I think I've got something." She said and checked the readings. "Teletran is detecting faint traces of…quantum pulses?"

"What the hell is that?" Grindor asked. He really hated it when smart people used crazy techno-jargin to explain things. It made his head hurt.

"Quantum pulses are the energy waves released by spatial anomalies, like space bridges." Roll Bar explained.

"They're caused by massive amounts of energy that is required to fold space to shorten long distance locations. Both space bridges and ground bridges have the same thing, and it's what allows the Autobots to travel great distances in just a few seconds." Annie said unexpectedly. Everyone looked at her like she grew a second head.

"And you know this how?" High Wire asked.

"Bulkhead was a construction worker. He and Wheeljack tried rebuilding a space bridge in Cybertron's orbit once. He told me all about it."

"Hold up, question!" Jolt raised his hand. "Why are we detecting something that should be coming from a space bridge on this planet?"

Everyone went silent at that question, and it brought a lot of bad thoughts to everyone's heads. No one wanted to voice their fears, knowing it could be true.

"We better step up out timetable." High Wire said and looked at Gina. "Gina, can you and Teletran-1 locate that pulse wave?"

"Already on it!" She said and got straight to work.

"Someone call up the Autobots." High Wire looked at the assembled Minicons. "I think we've found Optimus!"

XXXXXX

In the time he spent on this planet, Megatron learned that there was more to Terra that meets the eye. The dolems, amalgams, the ancient weapons, all of it only increased his desire to conquer it so that he may learn its secrets. He never thought that Terra could prove to be so valuable, but he was glad it did. It made all his humiliating defeats in the past year worth something.

This "stargate" he discovered was old, thousands of years old and disguised as a religious monument sacred to ancient druids, but the mechanics that were employed in its construction was disturbingly similar to Shockwave's blueprints of a new space bridge design. He was only able to find this thanks to the golden disk he acquired, and rebuilding it was surprisingly easy. Thanks to the components that the humans had so graciously supplied them with, they were able to enhance the gate's structure and get it working again, and the reactor that was also provided by those humans helped solve their need for a stable power source.

After he decimated this world, Megatron planned to see what other secrets it might have…after he torched those accursed dolems!

"These Dolems are just full of surprises," He said to the retrained Optimus. "They are like us in so many ways, yet they are more powerful than we are."

Optimus said nothing, only continuing to weakly struggle in his bonds. Megatron grunted and shook his head.

"You could break out, you know. Try to stop us. But you won't achieve anything. Your body is still suffering from the effects of Starscream's null ray. In your sorry state, even Knockout could take you out one on one."

"My Autobots will come for me, Megatron." Optimus said.

"I'm counting on that. I want your lackies to be the first to meet my army as they march on this world." Megatron replied and glared at Optimus. "And when I'm done with your so-called team, I'm coming for those human pets you hold in such high regard. They still need to pay for killing Lugnut!"

It was still a sore point for the Decepticons. Lugnut, one of their strongest Cons, killed by a little girl in a battle mech. The very thought was insulting and aside from Nightshade and Search, he wanted retribution, but couldn't risk future operations worrying about snuffing out three human children. His first priority was the Autobots…but he wasn't going to let this slight against Decepticon honor slide just yet.

"Don't worry, Prime, I'll be sure to give you their heads after I'm done with them." Megatron gave Prime a mocking smirk and walked away, leaving Optimus alone. Optimus growled and continued to struggle in his bonds, hoping that the Autobots got here before it was too late.

XXXXXX

With the Autobots preparing for an all-out siege on the Decepticons' secret operation site, the kids and Minicons were still working hard on pinpointing the origin point of the quantum waves.

"So, I'm guessing that a space bridge is similar but different to a ground bridge?" Annie questioned.

"Correct, the ground bridge was first invented by Wheeljack and Perceptor during the middle years of the War for Cybertron." Roll Bar said. He extended his arms in a wide arc, almost hitting Jolt in the head. "Space bridges are like massive ground bridges, the size of starships, maybe even larger. Cybertron had a ring around them that were used during the Golden Age."

"I'm guessing they aren't used anymore, seeing as it took the Autobots and Decepticons a while to get here when we first met you guys." Darren said.

"Cybertron destroyed the space bridges on order of Nominus Prime when the Rust Plague ravaged the colonies." High Wire said. At the twins' questioning looks, he elaborated on the plague. "The Rust Plague can be best described as the Black Death of our people. It was a fast spreading disease that caused the body to rush and corrode, slowly breaking down the body on the molecular level. All the while, you felt nothing until the corrosion rendered you immobile and slowly ate away at your vital organs, extinguishing your Spark and killing you painlessly."

"God, that's horrible." Annie whispered. High Wire nodded solemnly.

Thousands of colony worlds had been sterilized by the plague, and it was the Prime's decision to destroy the space bridges that saved the planet, at the cost of sending society into another dark age."

"I heard that there was still one last space bridge hovering between Cybertron's moons, but I don't know if that could've been fixed. Anyone who operated the space bridges is dead or light years away by now." Sparkplug said.

"So is Megatron trying to build a space bridge on Terra using the tech he stole?" Darren questioned.

"That's the general idea, but such a thing is impossible with the materials here." Liftor said. "Chances are that the components are used to act as surrogate parts to an already working space bridge. How they plan to do that is beyond me."

Gina hummed in thought. "Maybe it's not a space bridge they're building, but rather…they're reverse-engineered something similar." Her eyes shot open and she snapped her fingers. "That's it!"

"Care to fill us in?" Jolt asked.

"The Autobots were the first to stumble on that stone circle that transported us to Brigadoon, which we thought was just a pile of rocks arranged in such a manner by ancient local tribesmen. Then the Cons found that dome that captured Optimus and Nightshade. Both structures were creations of the dolems, and I'll bet my anime collection that they might have found another one of those things lying around somewhere."

"Another one of those portal things." Annie muttered and scowled. "Shit, I didn't think there would be more of them."

Gina nodded. "Last time we were near one of those gates, I noticed that the stone pillars used to channel the energy for transportation were laced with crystal. The Cons are probably using energon as a substitute instead of a power source. If we can find that, then perhaps we can find out where the Cons are."

"And we've found Optimus!" Darren smiled at Gina. "Gina, you're a genius!"

"Oh, I wouldn't say that." Gina blushed.

"I'll tell the others about what we found. Maybe this might be the break we're looking for." Sparkplug ran out the room to speak to Prowl and Wheeljack. He hoped this was their lucky break, because every second they wasted sitting around was a second longer for Megatron to form a backdoor for his army right in Terra's backyard.

XXXXXX

Megatron had every Decepticon working on the newly built stargate. Thundercracker and Skywarp were welding radiation reflecting panels to the standing stones while Flamewar hooked up one of the Nemesis' reflex engines (starship engines that enabled the ship to move within a star system at great speeds. They weren't as valuable as fold drives and losing one wasn't too much of a loss). To the main generator where the stolen reactor was installed in, acting as the main power source. The reflex engines, mixed with the navigational computer and the transdimensional capabilities of the stargate will make reaching across space time an easier feat to achieve, enabling a longer lasting portal for the troops to travel through. Soundwave and Knockout were hard at work in using the gaseous form of the D-11 virus to decrease the reactor's radiation level so they could properly handle the machine without any harmful effects.

"It certainly looks impressive, Megatron." Starscream praised while glancing at the pillars. The rune covered stones were now covered in dark purple metal sheets that looked like claws rising from the earth to grab the sky. "I love the Decepticon colors. It adds that imperialistic flare we're known for when conquering worlds."

"Thank you for your opinion, Starscream." Megatron grunted and glared down at the Seeker commander. "Was there something you wanted to tell me, or are you here just to waste oxygen talking?"

"I'm just here to report that construction is almost finished. The reactor's energy readings are stable and the reflex drive is almost synchronized with the particle collider. All in all, this monument is on its way to becoming a makeshift space bridge." Starscream smiled. He looked at the pillars and frowned. "Though the spikes are a bit ostentatious."

"I don't have you around for your sense of fashion, Starscream." Megatron growled and motioned to the site before them. "I want everyone to see the Decepticons' greatest victory, to know that it was here that Terra's apocalypse started."

"Pardon me, my lord, but this operation won't even get off the ground if the Autobots find us before we start the trail run. Space bridges aren't subtle, and once we fire it up, we could pop up on their radar like a star in its death throes." Starscream said. Megatron glared at him, but he stared right back unflinchingly. "You know I'm right. They'll ruin your little plan before it even gets past the opening credits. If I were in charge-"

"You _were_ in charge, Starscream, and instead of initiating the Infiltration Process, you sought to turn this planet into your own little energon farm, setting this operation back by a whole damn year! I wouldn't be taking such drastic measures if you just did you damn job!" Megatron interrupted. Starscream said nothing about that. "No witty comebacks this time, Starscream? Listen to me very closely…you are no leader. You are a tool who leaps before he thinks. It's no wonder your sister treated you like a punching bag all the time. Now get out of my sight."

Starscream almost punched Megatron right then and there, but Nightshade was within striking distance of him, so he held himself back. He settled with a glare at his leader before marching away. Flamewar, who was watching the exchange, couldn't help but twist the nail in deeper.

"Have a nice chat with Megatron, Starscream?" She asked.

"Silence, you witch! You're not one to talk about chatting with Megatron." Starscream hissed.

"Oh really? I'm not the one who loudly proclaims his goals of leading the Decepticons, only to get beaten down by the mech I'm trying to usurp repeatedly." Flamewar hopped down from the boulder she was sitting on and got in his face. "Admit it, Starscream, you're too weak both physically and politically to fight him now."

"But I do have time on my side, Flamewar." He replied and walked past her. "I've waited four million years to kill Megatron. Another year won't hurt to wait for an opportunity."

"Famous last words." Flamewar smirked.

Soundwave was finally finished with his work and approached Megatron. "Megatron, the reactor is stable and ready for installation."

"Perfect! Soundwave, install the reactor and activate the reflex drive and particle collider." Megatron ordered. "Charge the stargate up for activation!"

"No, Megatron! You don't understand what you're fooling around with!" Optimus yelled. "This is dolem technology. You don't know what you'll unleash if you use their technology like this. This is between the two of us, don't involve mankind in our war!"

"They became involved the minute you took those three children under you care! This world will be mine, and I don't care who stands in my way!" Megatron growled.

"You won't have an easy time, Megatron. As long as you continue down the path you walk, more and more people, Autobots and organics alike, will rise to stop you. The entire galaxy will rebel and keep rebelling until you are dead!" Optimus glared at his nemesis with his crystal blue eyes. "You were once like that too, rebelling against a tyrannical power. You can't seriously believe that people won't rebel against your rule!"

"If they won't accept the rule of the superior race, then they will all die. I did not risk our world, our people's future, just to bow down to a bunch of organic flesh puppets who seek our destruction!" Megatron said. The stargate behind him started to hum and the pillars began crackling with energy. "Watch your precious world become another colony for Decepticons far and wide. This world's secrets will be mine and the universe shall see our power!"

Optimus looked at what used to be Stonehenge as more energy arced between the pillars and glared at Megatron. He wasn't going to let it all end like this, not when they lost so much already.

XXXXXX

"I've got something." Ratchet said, eyes on the computer. "It's a faint energy signature, but it's growing stronger."

Gina brought up a map and inputted the coordinates. It took only seconds to pinpoint the exact location, but the location wasn't what she was expecting.

"The signal's coming from…Wiltshire, England?" She blinked.

"Stonehenge?" Darren said and rolled his eyes. "Why am I not surprised?"

"As unexpected this is, at least it's far from any population centers." Arcee said. "We don't need our huge battle being a breaking news story."

"Being in an open area like that will force us into an open confrontation, but we don't have many options." Prowl said. "If we're detecting the signature now, then it means that we don't have a lot of time to act. We need to move out at once."

The Autobots gathered their weapons and went to the ground bridge with their Minicon allies; they needed all the firepower if they wanted to win this battle. The children stayed behind, more out of being reinforcements than just to keep them safe. Prowl gave them a parting nod before joining the others at the ground bridge as it came to life. Prowl stepped to the front and faced the team.

"Autobots, I know things look bad right now, and I'm not going to sugarcoat it. There is a high probability that we might lose before Megatron can open the bridge. I don't think I need to tell you what will happen if we fail." Prowl said to them. "We can't let our emotions get in the way of our mission: to stop the Decepticons and drive them off this planet. Our war has already destroyed thousands of worlds from the fighting alone, and many races were driven to extinction; despite what I say about humans, the last thing I want to see is another race burned beyond recognition because we failed when it mattered the most.

"Now the plan is simple; we have Skyfire perform a preliminary air strike to scatter the Cons before we move in from all directions, try to overwhelm them before they can regroup and counterattack. We have two objectives, retrieving Prime and stopping that space bridge from activating. I don't care how you do it, just keep it from reaching maximum power. I can't guarantee that we'll all come back safe and sound, but I just want you to know that whatever happens today, I am proud to serve alongside you all."

"Aw, so you do care." Skyfire quipped, which earned her a smack across the head from Arcee. "Ow! I'm just lightening the mood!"

"Ratchet will monitor things here in the Ark, while you three," Prowl looked at the children. "Will remain here in case things don't go well. I'm sorry to have you three involved like this, but…"

"It's okay, Prowl, we know the risks." Darren said. He and Prowl shared a short glance, a silent apology to each other, before the Autobot tactician turned back to the team.

"All right, Autobots…transform and roll out!"

The Autobots switched to their vehicle modes and raced into the ground bridge with their Minicon partners. The children looked on worriedly as the portal closed behind them.

"They'll be alright, won't they?" Annie asked, oddly timid. "I mean, this isn't different from when we fought those Cardinals."

"They'll make it through this, Annie. We just need to trust them." Gina said, ignoring the sense of dread growing in the back of her mind.

XXXXXX

The stargate was reaching the peak of its power, just two thirds of the way to its maximum power output before it could create a dimensional portal. The gate was linked to the Nemesis' targeting computer to provide the exact coordinates to a Decepticon outpost near the Sol System based on the cybertronian stellar map. A ring of spires acted as the foundation that kept the massive amounts of energy in the circle, channeling the energy generated in a circle for continuous use. This energy would be used to power the particle collider. It was an amazing sight for Megatron, and he'd remember it as the day he gained a massive victory over the Autobots.

"Soundwave, how much power do we have?"

"We are at 87 percent, Megatron." Soundwave answered. "Estimated time until full power is reached-20 minutes."

"Good, good." Megatron smiled and turned to his team. "Decepticons, witness the moment of our victory and savor it. Today, we lay siege to this planet with our comrades off world and slowly turn this world into our fortress. Optimus Prime is our prisoner and we hold the greatest weapon known to our kind in our possession!" He looked at Starscream as he said his next words. "This is the reward I promised you when you work under my steady hand. We have suffered greatly on this world, but the fruits of our labor are finally brought to bear."

As Megatron addressed his soldiers, Prowl, Arcee, and Jazz watched from the nearby forest they were hiding in to scout the area. The team had split up into groups, with Ironhide, Bulkhead and Wheeljack attacking from the north and Prowl's team attacking from the south. Skyfire was circling the area high enough that the Cons wouldn't detect him and they were all wearing internal scramblers to negate Soundwave's telepathy.

"I've got a visual on Prime." Prowl said, looking over at the rock Optimus was trapped to. "He's still alive, not to seriously damaged, just superficial wounds. They have him in magna-cuffs between two stone pillars near the southeast corner of the monument. Ravage, Laserbeak and Buzzsaw are guarding him. No Minicons sighted."

"Looks like you're up, Sparky." Jazz looked down to Sparkplug. "You up for this?"

"Of course I am," sparkplug said. "Anything to save Optimus."

"Then we better get going before our opening closes." Arcee turned to Peppercat and Undertone. "Take care of her, okay?"

Undertone nodded and changed into his vehicle mode to lead the way with Sparkplug and Peppercat trailing behind him. Prowl contacted Ironhide on the other side of the field.

"Ironhide, you're up." He said.

Ironhide grinned and signaled Skyfire before powerlinking with Refute to convert his left arm into a fission chamber. "Show time."

XXXXXX

Skyfire internally grinned as she lowered her altitude and dropped her payload-plasma density charges snatched from Wheeljack's "Danger" locker. She dropped three of them right over the Decepticons, and when Thundercracker looked up and saw the bombs, he cursed and called out to his team.

"We've got incoming!"

The Decepticons scattered as the charges hit the ground, blasting them apart with tremendous concussive force that sent all of them flying in different directions. Megatron crashed into one of the spires and saw Skyfire circling around for another air strike.

"Kill her!" He roared at his Seekers. The trio transformed to jet mode and flew up to pursue Skyfire.

Ironhide used the chaos to run out of cover and shoot his fission chamber, unleashing a powerful burst of cold energy at Soundwave, hitting the spymaster in the back and blasting him to the ground. That first shot signaled the rest of the Autobots to charge Stonehenge from all sides and swarm upon the scattered Cons.

"We've got Autobots!" Nightshade shouted and fired an arrow from her bow at Ironhide's group. "Regroup around the stargate and don't let them through!"

As the Autobots and Decepticons battled, the Minicon trio approached the imprisoned Prime. Laserbeak and Buzzsaw were attacked from behind by Undertone and Emulator, who rammed into them and pinned them to the ground; Undertone knocked Laserbeak out with a swift knock to the head, while Emulator slashed and gouged Buzzsaw's eyes out. Sparkplug hopped onto one of the stones and got to work on cutting through the magna cuffs.

"Sparkplug?" Optimus whispered.

"We're going to get you out, Optimus." Sparkplug said as he managed to diffuse one of the cuffs and went to get the other one. Suddenly the black form of Ravage sprang up and pounced on Sparkplug, knocking him to the ground.

"Lord Megatron, Prime is al-" Ravage's voice was cut off when Undertone stabbed his sword into the back of his neck, stabbing right through his audio circuits. Unfortunately, Megatron heard him and looked over at them.

"No!" Megatron roared and shot a blast at them. The white mech just barely managed to free Prime's hand before jumping off the stone to avoid the deadly blast.

Megatron fired another blast at Sparkplug, but Optimus ran in front of the Minicon, taking the shot to the shoulder as he fired a blast from his own ion cannon. The ion blast hit Megatron in the face and blinded him as Optimus charged at him. The Autobot leader slammed into Megatron and they both fell over, rolling along the ground. Optimus got to his feet and punched Megatron in the face before the warlord pulled him to the ground again. They rolled around in the dirt before Optimus kicked him off and got to his feet.

"I will not let you ruin this for me!" Megatron snarled. "This world, and you, will burn at my hands!"

"You've been saying that for four million years, Megatron. Try saying something else for a change!" Optimus held out his arm and Sparkplug powerlinked with him. His right arm split apart to reveal his heated battle blade ready for use.

"Leader-1!" Megatron bellowed. The Mini-Con partner of the warlord appeared behind him and linked with his left arm, converting his arm into another weapon-an electrically charged death pincer.

He charged at Prime, who threw a boulder into his face before slashing at his chest. Megatron staggered back and stabbed his pincer into Prime's side, though he took an elbow to the face. Optimus flanked Megatron and slashed his back before a backhand from Megatron knocked him back. Megatron parried another strike from Prime and called for reinforcements.

"Decepticons!"

Two Cons came to his aid, Starscream and Blackout. Blackout fired a sonic blast that slammed into Optimus, while Starscream fired his null ray, which he dodged. Optimus caught a kick from Megatron and punched his knee before grabbing Starscream and using him as a club to smack Blackout away.

"It doesn't matter how many of you come at me," Optimus growled. "I'll take you all on!"

XXXXXX

Arcee dodged a knife thrown at her head before parrying a kick from Flamewar.

"Your reflexes are as fast as ever." Flamewar smirked.

"No, you're just getting sloppy." Arcee replied and drew her sword, slashing at Flamewar. The femme jumped back and fired two heat blasts from her crossbow, which hit Arcee's shoulder, but she still ran forward and leapt at Flamewar.

Arcee kicked Flamewar's crossbow aside before landing a kick to her face, which Flamewar retaliated with a quick swipe from her blade that left a shallow cut on Arcee's chest.

"I should've killed you back on Cybertron." Flamewar growled, wiping energon bleeding from her split lip. "It would've saved me all the trouble of trying to slag you repeatedly now."

"There are a lot of things you should've done, Flamewar. One of them was not betraying me!" Arcee came at Flamewar with a flurry of fast swords strikes that pushed Flamewar back. Flamewar parried most of them with her arm blade and leapt at Arcee to go for a killing blow, but Arcee shoved her sword between them, nearly impaling Flamewar's head.

"After I'm done with you, I'm going after those filthy humans you hold so dear." Flamewar growled. "Should I give them a swift but painful death, or a slow, agonizing one? It's your choice."

"You couldn't do that when you had me in chains, what makes you think coming after them when I'm dead will be any different?" Arcee smirked.

Flamewar growled and charged at Arcee with her own series of attacks as the fighting between the former lovers reignited anew.

XXXXXX

Optimus held his own against the three Decepticons, despite being wounded. He didn't hold back, and was in overdrive as he attacked and defended against his enemies.

He had Starscream in a headlock as the Seeker fired his laser cannons wildly and spun his body around to kick Megatron in the face. He let Starscream go and backhanded him away before slicing Megatron's deep in the arm. Blackout came from the side and slashed his tail rotor into Prime's side before he was kicked away, and Optimus stumbled a bit before Starscream shot a couple of laser bolts into his chest. Optimus kicked Starscream's cannon aside before slashing at Blackout's arm, before Megatron grabbed his arm and threw him to the ground.

"It's too late to stop this, Optimus!" Megatron said, kicking Optimus hard in the face. "I've already won!"

Blackout fired a sonic blast into Prime's shoulder that knocked him back before Megatron followed up with a powerful electrical blast that slammed into Optimus and sent him flying back out of Stonehenge and landing on his chest. Optimus groaned and pushed himself up, his body riddled with burns, scratches and cuts that wore at his wavering strength. Despite this, he managed to get to his feet and face his enemies.

"You're too late, Prime, just stop fighting and accept that truth." Megatron said, amazed that Prime was still able to move after a beating like that. "Why throw away your life so recklessly?"

"That's a question you should be asking yourself, Megatron." Optimus replied.

Rerouting power throughout his body, Optimus jumped up and slashed at Megatron, leaving an ugly burning gouge in his chest blast, and stabbed him in the lower abdomen. Optimus wrenched his blade free and slammed his heel into Blackout's face, slicing his arm off and sending the tail rotor flying along with the severed limb.

Megatron, holding a hand over the gash in his chest, tried to grab Prime, but was unable to match the Autobot's battle fury. Optimus spun around and stabbed his sword into Megatron's leg before punching him twice in the face. Starscream tried to impale him, but Optimus dodged him and grabbed his arm, karate chopping the limb and tearing it off before smacking the Seeker in the face with it.

Blackout stumbled at him and threw a punch at Optimus, which he caught and jumped onto his back. Optimus tore off a jagged piece of Blackout's armor and stabbed it into his eye before pulling. Blackout screamed as Optimus brutally tore his head apart in a gory shower of sparks and metal, tearing it right in half. Optimus jumped off his headless body and let it fall to the ground.

"Piece of tin." Optimus panted.

XXXXXX

Bulkhead fired his blaster at Thundercracker overhead as the Seeker pelted his large body with rapid fire laser bolts. Skyfire and Skywarp were embroiled in an intense dogfight above them, with stray missiles and laser blasts hitting the ground and sailing right over their heads. All in all, Stonehenge was the epitome of chaos.

"Jackie, how long do we have?" Bulkhead asked.

"A few minutes at best. We've been fighting a lot, but we're being held back too long." Wheeljack said. "We need to get going and stop the particle collider."

"Easier said than done, Wheeljack, with this stupid death turkey shooting at us!" Ironhide fired a flurry of fission blasts at Nightshade, which she dodged and returned fire with Gandiva's arrows. Ironhide was blasted off his feet and fell face first into the dirt from the explosion. "I'm really sick of that thing!"

With everyone else occupied with their own opponents, only Bulkhead and Wheeljack were available to stop the stargate from activating. The only Cons in their way were Barricade and Soundwave, who acted as the last line defense with Megatron busy fighting Optimus. Wheeljack took point, firing his shoulder cannons at the warrior, who showed no signs of backing off in the face of danger. Barricade transformed and drove straight at Wheeljack, ramming into him and rolled across the ground.

Bulkhead glared at Soundwave, who stood silently in his way. "Beat it, Soundwave. You ain't stopping me from getting past you."

Soundwave said nothing, which only further angered Bulkhead. The green Autobot ran forward and shifted to vehicle mode, driving at full speed at the spymaster, who still had yet to move. Soundwave raised his concussion rifle and fired a blast at him, almost knocking Bulkhead off his wheels, but he still kept driving. Soundwave waited for Bulkhead to get within a foot of him before signaling his two proxies to attack.

"Surprise!" Rumble and Frenzy appeared and attacked Bulkhead. Rumble hit Bulkhead's front with his pile drivers, while Frenzy blasted him away with his sonic scream. The green hummer tumbled down the hill in a landslide from the surprise attack.

"Bulkhead!" Wheeljack explained and shot two explosive shells at the twins before Barricade cut his arm with his gyro-blades.

"Pay attention to your own battles, Autobot!" Barricade hissed.

Bulkhead transformed and stopped his descent, climbing back to his feet and running for the stargate. Soundwave rushed him from the side and shot three rockets into his arm, staggering him. When Soundwave moved to grab him, Bulkhead brought his wrecking ball out and slammed it into his chest, throwing Soundwave into the air. Soundwave's arm converted into a radio dish and fired a powerful sonic wave at Bulkhead, blasting him off his feet.

Still, Bulkhead did not waver, rolling back to his feet and firing his blaster at Soundwave's face. "Try to see through that, cog sucker!"

Soundwave couldn't see him, but he certainly still heard him. Pointing his rifle in the direction of Bulkhead's footsteps, he fired a precise concussive blast that slammed into Bulkhead's back and sent him crashing through one of the pillars and landing on his round chest. Groaning in pain, he rolled onto his back and wrapped his head to get the dull humming out of his cranium.

"Wait, humming?" Bulkhead blinked and looked up, seeing that he was lying right next to the generator that held the particle collider and the engine block for the reactor. After a second to process his good fortune, he grinned and lifting his wrecking ball. "Thank you, Soundwave."

Nightshade, who was now dueling with Ironhide in melee combat after a lucky shot brought her down, looked over at the generator just in time to see Bulkhead smash his wrecking ball into the generator.

"No!"

The reactor was crushed and the massive amounts of power channeled into the particle collider and the pillars were abruptly cut off just before it could reach peak power. The surge of energy slowly died down, and the stargate went dark once more.

XXXXXX

Megatron saw it all happen as he staggered with his sparking wounds Prime dealt him. He looked at the smoking wreck that used to be the stargate's generator and felt his vision turn red with anger.

"No, no!" He roared. All that planning, all that hard work…

"M-Megatron, we must retreat." Starscream groaned, holding a hand to his severed arm and keeping energon from leaking from his wound. "We've lost the stargate…we need to leave before the Autobots regroup."

Megatron didn't reply, still staring at the depowered stargate that he was so close to opening. Nightshade, upon seeing that Megatron wasn't going to be any help now, gave the order to retreat as Soundwave opened a ground bridge back to their base. Barricade and Knockout dragged Blackout's body back with them through the bridge.

"It's over, Megatron." Optimus said as he limped over to Megatron. "You've lost."

"Shut your mouth, Prime! I refuse to lose to you. This day will be mine!" Megatron shouted and transformed to his tank mode, spinning his fusion cannon over to the D-11 container. "If I can't win, then neither will you. Let this world tear itself asunder!"

"Megatron, no!" Optimus ran to stop him, but he wasn't fast enough.

Megatron fired a plasma beam at the container and time seemed to stop as it was blasted apart. The Autobots watched in horror as red smoke rose from the shattered container and the wind slowly spread the gas over Stonehenge.

"I'll see you in hell, Prime!" Megatron cackled as he drove into the ground bridge and disappeared.

"Autobots, retreat!" Prowl yelled. "Don't let the mist touch you!"

Optimus watched as the hate plague grew in size and fell upon the area. They tried to vacate the site, but Bulkhead and Arcee weren't so lucky. Being too close to the stargate, they were hit by the mist first, and not even a second later they started convulse twitch. A red haze fell over their eyes as they started growling and snarling like animals. Arcee leapt on Bulkhead and started scratching at his face, and he threw her off to try to smash her face in with his wrecking ball.

"Arcee!" Peppercat ran to help her friend, but Undertone stopped her. "Let go, nya!"

"Don't or you'll go rabid too!" Sparkplug said and looked up at Optimus. "Optimus, is there a way to stop it?"

"There is no cure, and it's spreading too fast to properly contain it." Optimus said. He clenched his fists at the thought of failing at this critical moment. The plague would affect every man, woman and child and turn them into raving lunatics that would attack everything in sight. The world would burn itself to cinders, and even the children won't be safe from this. "No, I won't let it end like this!"

Optimus ran into Stonehenge and dived into the thick cloud of gas, much to everyone's horror.

"Prime!" Prowl yelled, but Optimus ignored him and kept going deeper into the fog.

Optimus had to focus hard on maintaining his sanity as the plague around him began affecting his mind. He had only seconds to get this right before he lost his senses, and even now he felt his mind start to go blank. Stopping at the heart of the cloud, he closed his eyes and focused on the Matrix within him.

"Matrix of Leadership, I call upon you."

His chest cavity opened up to reveal a magnificent glowing blue crystal sphere encased within an orange metal shell with handles at the sides. This was the Matrix of Leadership, an ancient relic that granted a Prime his status and power, and had caused so much pain in its long history.

"KRAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Optimus gave a tremendous roar as his body was engulfed in burning pain. The Matrix glowed brilliantly and generated a large amount of power that formed a dome that expanded outward over the area. Once the gas was contained within the field, Optimus began absorbing the plague into his body. The red mist was drawn from the earth, the air, even from Arcee and Bulkhead, and was taken into Prime's very being. This lasted only for a minute, but watching it all happen felt like an eternity. Once the mist was absorbed into his body, the dome exploded into a pillar of light that shot into the sky before fading away.

Smoke filled the area as the Autobots ran over to their friends. Bulkhead and Arcee were weak and nearly unconscious, but were completely cured. Prowl and Jazz approached Optimus, who sat bent over on his hands and knees. Red energy crackled along his body as he sat there trembling. The air around him shimmered as if he was giving off immense heat waves.

"Optimus, you okay?" Jazz asked.

Optimus said nothing as he weakly stood up to his full height, his back still turned to them.

"Prime?" Prowl said slowly. He reached out to touch Optimus' shoulder, but then Prime spun around and sucker punched him in the face.

"I feel fine." Optimus said with a darker edge in his tone. He looked at the rest of his team, his crystal blue eyes now a deep crimson. "In fact, I feel absolutely amazing!"

He took out his ion cannon and fired on the other Autobots. Ironhide charged into him from behind and grabbed his arm.

"Prime, what the hell are you doing?" Ironhide grunted, struggling against Prime's strength. "What's gotten into you?"

"Nothing," Optimus said and ripped his arm free from Ironhide's grasp before slugging him in the jaw. "I just feel like ditching you people, that's all."

Optimus slammed a fist into the ground and an explosion of red energy blasted the Autobots back. Dust filled the air, but when Prowl and Jazz ran in to get Optimus, they lost sight of him. Optimus was gone, and the Autobots were left alone among the ruins of the deactivated stargate, feeling worse than they did coming here.

They just lost their leader again, and in the worst way possible.

* * *

 **Looks like I got two reviews from those Critics United hacks who blacklisted this story for some incomprehensible reason (Seriously, I have no idea why they're just now looking at me after fucking three years on this site. All they did was quote two lines from the first chapter of this story and do their usual bullshit). But I'd like for them and others of those fake enforcers know that I don't give two shits about your self entitled vigilante fanfiction justice or whatever the hell you hacks do. I don't care about you, and neither does anyone else. You're not scaring anybody. And grow some balls and have actual profiles if you're gonna call someone out, pussies. If not, be guests instead so I can block you and move on with my life (because unlike you, I actually have one).**

 **Moving on, that's it for the intro arc to this story. Some other changes is that I changed Tracer and D-Va's names to Razor and Mugen, after the Japanese names of other obscure Minicons from Armada and Energon. I hope you all liked it, and sorry for the rant. Thanks for reading, and please leave a review.**


	3. Light in the Dark part 1

Chapter 3-Light in the Dark part 1

A day and a half had passed since the battle at Stonehenge, and things hadn't been looking good for the Autobots. Though they had won the battle and stopped Megatron from creating a backdoor into Terra, they had lost Optimus yet again and now he was running rogue in Emmeria unsupervised.

The Autobots were assembled in the command center still trying to find their missing leader while also trying to discern what happened to him. It was another tense conversation that threatened to boil over into a heated debate.

"So he acted like this just seconds after destroying the plague?" Ratchet said.

"I wouldn't say destroy," Skyfire said. "More like absorb, like a sponge. I got that much from his light show before I almost went blind."

"Optimus cured Arcee and Bulkhead with the Matrix." Jazz sighed, already feeling the stress of the past few hours catch up with him. "I didn't know it could do that."

"A lot is not known about the Matrix's capabilities. But I doubt that it was meant to be used like this." ratchet shook his head and leaned forward. "If Optimus absorbed the plague into the Matrix, the only possible explanation I can give is that he's been infected, but in a different way. He's still sane, in a sense, but he's more violent and ruthless."

"Is there a way to reverse it?" Arcee asked.

"I don't know until I can properly study him, but I'm afraid that the longer it's in his system, the deeper the infection will take root." He said. "Be prepared to fight him if you can't at least convince to come peacefully.'

"And if we can't cure him?" That was the elephant in the room no one wanted to address, but Prowl wanted to get it out there immediately.

"What do you mean, Prowl?" Ironhide asked, glaring over at Prowl.

"You know what I mean. If we fail to find a cure for Prime, what do we do with him?" Prowl looked at everyone present as he gave this question to them. "In his current condition, he's a danger to us and the humans. Prime's a powerhouse on his own, and a strong warrior like him running around unchecked will cause problems for everybody."

Ironhide slammed his hands on the table, leaving dents in the metal as he stood up and glared at Prowl. "I don't like what you're suggesting, Prowl."

"You don't have to like it. I'm just vocalizing what we're all thinking." Prowl leaned forward and stared right at Ironhide's face. "What do we do if we can't cure Prime?"

"Don't give me that slag!" Ironhide yelled. "We almost lost Bumblebee and now you're thinking about killin' Prime?"

"I never said that. Killing him is the last thing I want to think about, but you need to use your head for once, Ironhide. What are we going to do, try to keep him in a cage until we stumble upon some miracle?"

"You would think like that, wouldn't you?" Ironhide sneered. "Because trying to be optimistic and find a way to save our leader is too damn emotional for our stone cold strategist!"

"I'm trying to salvage a mess here! What do you think our forces will do once this news gets out? The fighting will reignite, with the Decepticons on the offensive and the Autobots demoralized by our leader going rogue!" Prowl yelled, slamming his hands on the table. "I'm asking these questions because none of you have the courage to! That's my job, doing what you all won't bring yourself to do! Don't make me the enemy because I do my job efficiently, I know you're all thinking the same thing!"

"Stop it!" Jazz yelled. Having the normally laid back mech raise his voice at them was enough to get both mechs to settle down slightly. "Ironhide, Prowl's got a point. We don't know if we can cure Prime, but that doesn't mean we'll shoot him on sight. We just need a way to subdue him to get him back here before the Cons, or Primus forbid Oz, get their hands on him. Don't break down on us now, big guy."

Ironhide glared at Prowl before sitting back down with a sigh, tension fading from his body as he sagged in his seat. "I know, Jazz. I'm just not looking forward to anything other than getting Prime back alive. We went through too much in this war just to have him gunned down by his own troops."

"You and I both, Hide." Jazz said and crossed his arms. "Let's just hope we can find him before anyone else does."

XXXXXX

Soundwave worked at the bunker's communications center, having connected to the satellite system in Terra's orbit to locate the now rogue Optimus Prime. It was only thanks to Ravage that they learned of Prime's condition, as he was still wounded at Stonehenge when the fighting broke out but was still conscious long enough to see it all go down. Megatron wasted no time in ordering the spymaster to locate the Autobot leader, but he had no idea why Megatron wanted to find Optimus (and he wasn't going to use his telepathy on him to learn why).

"This is a waste of time." Starscream grumbled. He and Nightshade were in the command center watching Soundwave do his job. "With the Autobots down two mechs, we should be using this opportunity to gather as much energon as possible."

"It's not your call to make, Starscream. What Megatron does is his business." Nightshade said. "But I am curious as to why we're even looking for Prime. I thought you'd be happy he's gone."

"I am, but I'd be a fool not to capitalize on this opportunity. Prime has left his team and he's aimless." Megatron said. "With his power on our side, the chances of our victory on this planet will increase."

"Oh? Did you just realize how inept you are at trying to kill Prime, so you're offering him a seat at the table?" Starscream snorted. "Just when I thought you couldn't be more disappointing."

Megatron punched Starscream to the floor and stomped on his back to pin him there. "Speak to me like that again, Starscream, and I'll send you to Tarn's group for re-education!"

Kicking Starscream away, he walked over to his throne to think. With the loss of both the reactor and the stargate, they were back at square one; low on energy, energon, soldiers and now they had no way to get off this rock. Having Prime could demoralize their enemies in the long run and open some new doors previously left unopened.

"Have you found him, Soundwave?"

"Negative, Optimus Prime's signal cannot be detected. I suggest sending out recon units to local energon deposits for any signs of habitation."

Megatron nodded. Optimus was still wounded at their last battle, and without access to a CR chamber or an onsite medic, he would have to rely on his body's natural healing process to get back into shape. Prime was known for healing from wounds faster than most, but even still, he would need energon for a speedy recovery.

"Send out Barricade, Flamewar and Knockout to Emmeria." Megatron ordered. "And tell them not to engage, this is strictly recon. Fighting him now would be counterproductive."

"Yes, Megatron."

XXXXXX

Annie tried to focus on her homework, make-up work from her technology teacher, Mr. Ting (or Farting as she liked to call him). At Gina's insistence, she had to get her grades up after spending more than a week out of school following the Jezebel incident, but it was hard to properly focus when her brother was performing his fancy telekinetic tricks just a few feet away. It wasn't annoying her, it was just really cool to watch him do it.

Things around the Ark were getting really depressing, so the kids tried to spend some time away from the Autobots until they got out of their funk. Gina and Penny were working with the Minicons to find Optimus, and the twins and Kevin explored the forests in the lava fields where the Ark was stationed. Anything to give the Autobots some space while they worked.

Darren stomped his foot and sent a boulder flying, before he split the rock in half with a telekinetic blade. Thrusting his arms outward, he threw both halves away, throwing them into the trees. Annie whistled and clapped her hands at the great performance.

"Great job, bro, you're doing great!" Annie said. It was great to see him using his powers more. It seemed he was finally embracing his nature as an esper, and it did wonders for his telekinetic skills. She doubted those people at the Providence Foundation could teach him anything more than what he's already learned.

"He's getting better." Kevin said as he walked up to her.

"Of course he's getting better, he's my twin." Annie said proudly and looked down at the boy. "How are things at the Ark?"

"Tense." Kevin sighed. "Everyone looks like they're about to lose their minds. Wheeljack almost punched Prowl for being rushed in his work. Jazz had to break it up."

"The Autobots can operate with or without Optimus, but losing him to the hate plague like that isn't sitting right with anyone." Annie said. "No one knows what he'll be like when they find him, or even how to help him, but one thing's for sure, it's going to be a fight."

"How come Teletran-1 can't find him?" Kevin asked. "I thought it could track Autobot biosignals?"

"Ratchet thinks that the plague might have corrupted Prime's signature when he absorbed it into his body." Darren walked up to them to get some water. "The Autobots can find him on their scanners, satellite images or even through their emergency detection system. It's like he's completely disappeared off the grid."

"Maybe he scanned another alt mode or something." Kevin suggested. Seeing the twins' faces fall, he figured they hadn't thought of that.

"So now we've got to see if Prime's even still got the same alt mode as before? Fuck me." Annie groaned and ran her hands down her face.

The three children sat in silence. A soft breeze ran through the forest, making the leaves rustle. There was nothing to be said, as all three of them didn't know what to do in this situation. They felt helpless and it was frustrating.

"Is there anything we can do?" Kevin asked quietly.

"Give the Autobots their space and try to keep calm." Darren said as he tossed a rock into the pond and made it skip across the water. "If they don't have that at least, then we might as well roll over and give up."

"Way to be positive, Darren." Annie said.

"Thanks, Annie."

XXXXXX

Gina was coping with the recent disaster in her own way, by working alone in her workshop.

Her workshop/lab was just an underground nuclear bunker repurposed for her that was built by her grandfather, Jonathan. Here, in the solitude of her humble, and unkempt, abode, she found peace among her various creations she tinkered with over the years; a small clockwork spider she made when she was seven, a robot dog with an AI she was still trying to perfect, and a tiny golden mechanical rose that opened and closed at the press of a button, something she worked with Darren on Valentine's Day.

In addition to her new line of "Gina Blasters" that she made for use on missions, Gina also had her exo-frame pilot suit, her tractor beam gantlets and other little devices for use when not in her talos. It was basically her safety pack on missions so that fighting the Mini-Cons would be safer, or at least end with less bruises. However there has been a bit of a lull in Minicon activations since the battle against Temperantia.

"Ms. Gina."

Gina looked over her shoulder to see Sara walking down the stairs, clad in her usual pristine white dress. Her pale, synthetic skin looked almost translucent in the dim light of the bunker and hinted at Sara's cybernetic nature. One could almost mistake her for a human were it not for the pupiless emerald green eyes.

"You don't have to be so formal, Sara. Just Gina is fine." The blonde said tiredly before rubbing her forehead.

"Are you feeling alright?" Sara asked.

"I'm fine," Gina said. "I'm just a little tired. I've been working on making a blaster for Annie and I don't think I've blinked for half an hour."

Sara noted the tension in her "mistress's" eyes and easily discerned that her work wasn't what was keeping her up at night. "You're worried for Optimus Prime."

"…Yes, I am. I knew something like this would happen. Just when things start looking good for us, it's like Gaia herself just screws it all up with a wave of her hand." Gina shook her head. "We fix one problem and another starts. And now…now we're facing the possibility of losing Optimus for good."

Sara stared at Gina for a moment before sitting down next to Gina. "Someone once told me that if you find yourself stuck on a problem, you should find a way around it. If the usual solutions evade you, then think outside the box. Should the conventional abandon you, seek out the unconventional. There is more than one way to solve a problem, you just need to approach it from different angles. Don't be afraid to take calculated risks."

Gina looked at Sara, and the android stared right back at her. That sounded like something she would say; try an unconventional solution to solve an unconventional problem.

"Sara," Gina began. "Who told you that?"

Sara opened her mouth, but passed and said, "Someone who I cared for greatly. In your terms, she could considered my mother."

"What was her name?"

"I can't answer that."

"Can't or won't?"

"Both."

They stared at each other in silence again before Gina sighed and went back to work. "Just leave me alone, Sara."

Sara didn't take offense to the harsh tone and stood up. Before she left, she gave Gina some parting words. "Have faith in the Autobots, Ms. Gina. It is good that you want to help your friends, but allow the Autobots to solve their own problems. They have become too dependent on you for help, and they have more experience in dire situations such as this."

'No, not like this disaster.' Gina thought.

Sara left the bunker and left Gina alone. The girl huffed and slammed her head onto the table, nearly dislodging her glasses. She must really look terrible if Sara was giving her words of encouragement. Still, she noticed subtle changes in Sara's mannerisms. The android was starting to display some visible emotions and was slightly more social with the other humans and even the Minicons. Perhaps being around humans was having an effect on Sara.

Gina sighed and took out the key card that Optimus gave her and studied it. She wondered what exactly it was. It must have been really important if it came from Prime's mentor; Ratchet told her that Optimus was close to an old mech named Alpha Trion, who helped Prime acclimate to his new status shortly after gaining the Matrix. It certainly looked pretty; it was silver with small cybertronian runes etched into the metal. She ran her fingers along the rigid surface, feeling the grooves of the runes on it. She wondered what they meant.

Then something happened.

As soon as her finger ran over a symbol near the center of the key card, Gina's vision suddenly went white as it glowed in her hand. When her sight returned, she found herself floating in space, as if she was floating between the stars and planets. Her body felt light and airy, like a spirit, and yet everything felt so real. Her entire vision was dominated by a vast expanse of dark blue space, like an ocean, and all around her were stars glittering like jewels.

Then her surroundings changed again, this time it wasn't as fluid and the transition felt uncomfortable. She saw images, flickers of what she could only explain was the past and present. So many windows into time and space, she could barely process it all. She saw armies of warring Cybertronians battling in a scorched metallic landscape, one side led by a purple and white mech with an orange cannon on his arm. She saw New York City burning with Decepticon warships hovering over the cityscape. The next image was that of a wounded Megatron holding a dying white femme in his arms amidst a city of ruin. An army of colossal robots-Titans-attacking Cybertron. And then she saw…her. Gina saw herself, older and taller, clad in a white bodysuit with white hair and lacking her glasses. Her older, adult self was working hard on something on a table in a lab.

It was a humanoid figure that was about the same size as a child. There was no skin over the endoskeleton yet, but Gina recognized the long green hair flowing from the scalp. It was…Sara.

Suddenly Gina felt herself get pulled back into her body. Her eyes snapped open and she found herself back in her workshop again, panting and covered in sweat, as if waking from an intense dream.

"What…what was that?" She whispered hoarsely. She looked at the key card in her hand and realized that it felt warm. "Was that you?"

She wasn't expecting it to answer her, but she couldn't help but fell a bit disappointed at getting only silence in response.

XXXXXX

At the Ark, the Autobots were all assemble in the command room after Wheeljack announced that he may have a way to find Optimus. He was at the Teletran-1 computer enlarging a map of western Emmeria.

"All right, Wheeljack, you said you've found a way to locate Prime, so spill it." Ironhide said impatiently.

"I just realized that maybe we're going about this search all wrong. We're trying to find Optimus sing a method to locate normal Cybertronians, but Optimus isn't normal anymore." Wheeljack said. "He's been infected with the Hate Plague, corrupted by the virus. It's altered him in ways that are more than just mental but also physical."

"Okay, that's all well and bad but how does this help us?" Bulkhead asked.

"Optimus is just carrying massive amounts of the virus, a plague mech." Wheeljack pressed a button on the console and multiple red zones appeared on the map. "The plague has its own radiation signature. If we focus on finding non-Terran energy signatures that match the plague's type…"

He typed in a command and the red zones started vanishing until only one was left, near the border of the Valga Kingdom.

"Way to go, Jackie! You found him!" Bulkhead laughed and smacked his friend on the back, nearly knocking him over.

"Good work, Wheeljack." Prowl said and left the room with the rest of the team. "Now we don't have any time to lose people, so let's move out!"

XXXXXX

A lone flat-nosed Peterbilt truck drove down the road in the Argonian countryside. The large vehicle was driving well above the speed limit, and didn't even bother to slow down at turns. It was clear this truck had no problem running over anything, or anyone, in its way, which thankfully wouldn't happen as the road was mostly empty at this time of day.

There was a bright flash, and the truck was now being followed by an odd collection of other vehicles, ranging from fancy sports cars to pick-up trucks and even a police car with the siren switched on. Despite this, the truck didn't stop, only speeding up and driving onto the grassy fields. It sped into the small forest near the farmlands and the Autobots quickly followed after it. The truck was moving at top speed now, and it was hard to catch up while avoiding the trees. However, before it could get too deep into the underbrush, Skyfire jumped down from above, landing right in front of the truck and cutting it off. The Autobots went to their bipedal forms and Wheeljack pointed his scanner at the truck.

"Jackie, is it him?" Bulkhead asked. Wheeljack waited for the indicator to hit the red zone before nodding.

"It's him." Wheeljack confirmed. Prowl nodded and took a cautious step forward.

"Prime? It's me, Prowl." Prowl said slowly, as if he were talking to a wild animal. "You're sick, and we need to get you back to the Ark to help you get better."

The truck split apart in a burst of movement that made Skyfire and Prowl jump back on instinct. The transformation was surprisingly violent as parts rearranged themselves into legs, arms and a torso. Optimus Prime stood to his full height before the Autobots…but he was different. His normal red and blue armor was now midnight black, with crimson red window shields on his chest plate and bright orange eyes that glowed with anger and pure rage. An uncharacteristic snarl graced his face as he glared at the Autobots.

"Sick? Me?" Optimus growled, steam shooting from his armor. His voice, once calm and reassuring, had a menacing tone that bordered on barely restrained savagery. "Perish the thought. I feel better than ever!"

"Optimus, please," Arcee said. "We just want to help."

"Help? I am a Prime!" Optimus declared. "I need no help!"

Like a lion sprinting forward to catch its prey, Optimus leapt forward at his team. The Autobots scattered as he slammed his fist into the ground, leaving a deep hole in the ground. He got up and charged at Prowl, backhanding him into a tree. Arcee drew her laser swords and leapt at Optimus, but he sidestepped her slash and punched her away, grabbing her back armor panels and throwing her to the ground. He prepared to crush her underfoot but Bulkhead rushed him from behind and slammed his wrecking ball into the side of his head, knocking him aside. When Bulkhead tried to hit him again, Optimus grabbed the wrecking ball and threw Bulkhead straight through another tree.

Skyfire fired her twin pulse cannons at Optimus, hitting him in the chest and pushing him back. Despite this, Prime was hardly wounded by the attack and grabbed Bulkhead by the arm. He threw the mech at Skyfire and smacked her away, sending both Autobots crashing into each other and falling away. Bulkhead rolled onto his front and sat up, looking forward just in time to see Optimus' fist reach his face.

Optimus punched Bulkhead so hard in the face that a shockwave reverberated from the blow, sending Bulkhead flying through another tree. Optimus drew his battle axe and raised it, but a missile to his left flank blasted him off his feet.

Ironhide ran at him with his war hammer, but Optimus spun around and slammed the flat of his axe into his side, batting Ironhide into the ground. Wheeljack ran behind Prime and used his energo-whip to snag his axe, swinging the large weapon around his body before slamming it into Prime's chest. He stumbled back from the blow, and Jazz jumped in to land a kick to his face, which sent him spinning into Ironhide's fist. Jazz and Ironhide dealt a combo of attacks that staggered him, hitting Optimus back and forth without giving him any opening to counterattack. Ironhide finally slammed his hammer into Prime's chest to knock him down while Jazz and Prowl pinned him down.

"Unhand me you fools!" Optimus roared.

"Sorry boss bot, but this if for your own good." Jazz grunted. Despite just giving Optimus a beat down, he was still giving them a hard time. This is the first time that Jazz wasn't glad for Prime's recovery powers.

While they were occupied, a ground bridge appeared behind them and an arrow shot from it. It exploded over Jazz and Prowl, blasting them off Prime. Nightshade exited the bridge and fired more arrows from her bow to keep the Autobots at bay while Megatron walked after her he made his way over to the infected Prime. They stared at each other before Megatron smiled.

"You're a hard mech to track, Optimus." Megatron said. "You've been busy."

"You could say that." Optimus said. "Now, what do you want?"

"To make you an offer that you won't refuse."

"Depends if whatever you're offering is worth it." Optimus replied. "What are you offering?"

"Power. The power to use your abilities for what they were meant for-to make our race the strongest in the universe." Megatron grinned. "And the chance to slaughter as many enemies as you like."

Optimus stared at Optimus for a few minutes before nodding. "You had me at slaughter. You have my attention."

Megatron held up his arms. "Then welcome to the winning team, Optimus Prime."

Arcee got to her knees a she watched Optimus enter the ground bridge with Megatron and Nightshade. She jumped to her feet and ran after them in a desperate attempt to reach Optimus. But the portal closed before she could reach it and she fell to her knees in despair.

"NOOOOOOO!"

XXXXXX

Skyfire groaned as she exited the CR chamber, her body still aching from the beating she took from Optimus. The other Autobots were recovering from their bruises as well as she leaned against a medical slab.

"That went well." Skyfire quipped. Prowl glared at her as Ratchet welded together the torn armor pieces on his chest from where he was burned.

"Don't start, Skyfire."

Arcee sat on a medical slab with her head hung low, with Darren and Emulator standing next to her offering her their support. "He was right there. We were so close in getting him back."

"Don't worry, Arcee, you'll get him back." Darren said.

"And how do think we can do that now that he's gone with the Cons?" Ironhide growled. "You saw how Prime smashed through us in that fight. Tell me, kid, how the hell do you expect us to do a damn thing about Prime's condition when we can't even find him?"

"I don't know," Darren replied, not deterred by Ironhide's aggression. "But I do know that yelling and groaning about it isn't going to solve a damn thing."

Being told off like that would've set Ironhide off further, but Ironhide knew that Darren had a point. He forced himself to calm down and sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"What's our next course of action?" He asked Prowl.

Everyone turned to Prowl, who was the acting leader of the team in Prime's place. He was silent for a moment, thinking on their options and told them the only solution they could take.

"We wait and prepare, for now." Prowl said. When the others tried to protest, he raised a hand for silence. "I'm sorry, but we don't know where the Nemesis or the Decepticon command bunker is located, since their location is magnetically shielded. Right now, all we can do is wait for Optimus to show up again."

XXXXXX

At the Decepticon bunker, the Decepticons (what was left of them) were assembled in the command center upon Megatron's orders. Starscream hung off to the side watching the team with utter loathing. Just looking at the state they were in nearly sent him into a rage; they lost Lugnut and Scalpel, then Prime kills Blackout and now their mighty ship was severely damaged and grounded for the foreseeable future. That Stargate Operation was a massive failure that had achieved absolutely nothing for them.

'This campaign is just one failure after another. If it's not the Autobots giving us the run around, then it's those accursed dolems that try to kill us for breathing their air!' Starscream thought. 'Megatron chides me for being impulsive, but I don't see him racking up any wins either. It will take a miracle to salvage this mess!'

The chatter in the room quickly silenced when Megatron walked in with Nightshade. Looking at his troops, Megatron began to talk.

"Decepticons, we have achieved a massive victory over our Autobots. Two days ago we've lost the stargate and one of our own to the Autobots, but in the wake of our defeat something glorious has happened. Optimus Prime has been infected with the very disease he sought to destroy," Megatron said, inciting quiet whispers among the group. Nightshade yelled for them to be quiet, allowing Megatron to continue. "Now the Autobots are leaderless and without direction. Without their precious Prime to hold their hands, they will slowly fall apart and bite at each other like rabid dogs. And our new brother in arms will help us in striking the final blow."

A new warrior walked into the room, and as he stepped into the light, the Decepticons were all shocked speechless at his identity.

"Together with our new ally, Optimus Prime, our victory is reassured. This world, and the war, will be ours!"

Though not looking very pleased with this new development, the Decepticons still salted in unison at Megatron's rallying cry. "All hail Megatron!"

None were as displeased as Nightshade. Sure, she helped bring Prime into the fold, but she didn't like it and was going to have some words with Megatron later on. But for now, Megatron and Optimus were allies once again, joined together to achieve the ultimate victory over their enemies.

Little did Megatron know, Optimus had another kind of victory in mind.

* * *

 **Here's the start of another special four part saga that starts off this story with a bang. On a serious note, apparently there's a hack going around that infects peoples' profiles if they click on someone else's profile. I don't know the full story, but it happened to me after I clicked on those Critics United dickheads' profiles in this story's review section, so stay clear of them. Be careful and try to avoid clicking on any unfamiliar profiles, lest you get hacked. I wouldn't hold my breath on this site's admins even caring to fix this problem, so expect it to linger around for a bit before they get off their asses. Honestly, I've seen better security in Facebook.**

 **That being said, thanks for reading and please leave a review. Until next time.**


	4. Light in the Dark part 2

Chapter 4-Light in the Dark part 2

It would be another two days before the Autobots got another chance at Optimus again. It was by chance that sky-spy had managed to capture footage of a Decepticon raid on a remote oil refinery in Estovakia. It happened in the dead of night, but the satellite images were clear enough that they could see the profiles of Barricade, Knockout and Optimus Prime. Seeing the normally peaceful Optimus tear into a refinery like a savage was deeply unsettling for the Autobots who knew him for many centuries. It only confirmed their fears that the Cons were going to use Prime as a political tool to increase their army's morale and abuse his power for their own nefarious deeds. Optimus and Megatron were powerful forces all on their own. Together, they would be impossible to fight alone.

"This isn't good." Bulkhead said. "With Optimus on their side, we'll never be able to take 'em."

"Thank you for the obvious statement, Bulkhead. Your powers of perception are riveting." Prowl said. Bulkhead growled and punched Prowl in the shoulder, almost knocking him over.

"Don't get snippy with me because you screwed up when it mattered most!"

"Are you really going to go down that route?" Prowl retorted. "You try taking one of Nightshade's arrows head on and try getting up again."

"Don't start bickering you two, we need to focus here." Arcee said.

"Like getting Prime back and curing him of that plague." Ironhide said.

"How are you going to do that?" Kevin asked. "I thought the hate plague had no cre."

"It doesn't. We're just hoping that Ratchet can find a cure by studying Optimus." Wheeljack said. "Not like we can do anything now unless we can get Optimus himself back."

"Like that's gonna happen." Skyfire grumbled.

Debbie stood to the side watching the Autobots slowly fall apart, their morale sinking faster than the Titanic. She knew from her grandfather's old war stories that some military units would fall apart after losing their commanding officer. From what she learned from the kids and Minicons, Megatron was a brilliant tactician as well as a warrior, and having the Autobots tear each other apart over their missing leader joining the enemy would seem like something he would do.

Having had enough of their bickering and loathing, she put her fingers to her mouth and gave a sharp whistle that caught everyone's attention. "Guys, could you all just stop and breathe for a second? This is what Megatron wants, for you all to fall apart as a team and start fighting amongst yourselves. I know Optimus isn't here to lead you and that Prowl isn't the ideal commander to have-no offense."

"None taken." Prowl said.

"But I'd expect you to know how to operate without Optimus commanding you. I doubt he'd be pleased to see his team acting like this just because they couldn't rescue him once." She scolded them.

Everyone looked down at her in surprise, even Prowl was shocked at the dressing down the elder Radcliffe gave them. And surprisingly, he found himself agreeing with her.

"You're right," He said, giving her a small smile. "We should know better than to be acting like this. We're a military unit with centuries of experience under our belt, we should know how to operate under these conditions."

"Better not let Kup know you said that." Skyfire remarked.

"But what do we do?" Bulkhead asked.

"Wait for the Cons to make a move again and ambush them." Jazz said. "We'll have to grit out teeth and deal with the factors involved."

"Sounds like a plan that's bound to go up in flames." Penny muttered.

"It's not like they can really do anything short of storming the Decepticon headquarters, and we don't know where that is thanks to the dolems trying to kill us." Darren said. "Let's just see how things go from here and help out when we can. Right, Gina?"

Darren's voice couldn't reach her, as Gina was stuck in her own world. She was closed off to the world as her vision was assaulted by a wave of vivid colors and her senses thrown off balance as her perception of time became irrelevant. She couldn't see anything aside from the bright collage of colors and the high pitched ringing in her ears. The ringing grew louder and louder in Gina's ears to the point where it was deafening. She put her hands over her ears but she could still hear that unholy sound.

'Stop it!'

She couldn't even hear herself think as her head felt like it was about to split open. She tried to scream, but she couldn't even hear her voice.

'STOP IT!'

As quick as it started, the ringing stopped. Gina hesitantly opened her eyes to find that everything was calm again. No longer was she in a flood of colors, she was now floating in space. She had no idea where she was, but as she looked up she saw a large silver planet positioned above her. It was a metal world…a machine world.

The ringing was now just a dull hum in her head as she stared up at it. Then she heard a soft voice whisper in the back of her mind.

'Cybertron.'

"Gina!"

Her eyes snapped open again and she found herself staring up at the worried eyes of Darren, Sara and Debbie. The Autobots stood over them, looking just as concerned, with Ratchet at the front checking her over. It took a moment for Gina to realize that she was lying on the floor with tears running from her eyes.

"W-What happened?"

"That's what we would like to know, gold digger." Penny said, looking just as worried despite her crude words. "You just froze then fell to the floor screaming to stop the noise."

"I did?" Gina cleared her sore throat and stood up wiping the tears off her face. "Did…any of you hear a noise just now?"

"What noise, Gina?" Debbie asked.

"A loud noise, like a high pitched ringing that was just…pounding in my head. It went on for what felt like forever before it stopped. None of you heard it" She looked at her friends and they all shook their heads. Gina looked to the Autobots. "What about you? Did you guys hear anything?"

"There was no ringing, Gina." Arcee said, kneeling down. "Just you screaming."

Gina sighed and rubbed her forehead. Ratchet noted that she looked tired and didn't seemed to really be surprised that no one heard the ringing.

"Gina, have you been getting any sleep, lately?" Ratchet asked.

"Not really. I've just been having these little nightmares that would keep me up at night." Gina said. "Sometimes I would get little episodes like the one that just happened. I don't know how to explain it."

"Gina, this is something that you should've told us about." Darren said. "Why didn't you tell us you were having nightmares?"

"I didn't think they were that important to worry about. In fact, I never had nightmares before until I…" Gina's eyes widened and she reached into her pocket to pull out the silver key-card." Until I got this thing."

"Gina," Jazz whispered, looking down at the card in her hands with a look of surprise, shared by Ratchet. "Where did you get that?"

"Optimus gave it to me before you guys went off to fight Megatron. He asked me to keep it safe for him." She said. "Said that it was a memento from his friend, Alpha Trion."

"Gina, that relic is the Key to Vector Sigma. It's a very ancient and valuable relic that belongs to a Prime." Ratchet told her. Gina looked up at him in shock."

"Wait, if that's the case, then one of you have it." Gina held the key up, but no one took it. "What's wrong?"

"I'll take it if you guys are gonna be pansies about it." Skyfire said and reached down to take the card.

"Skyfire, wait!" Jazz moved to stop Skyfire, but as soon as her fingers touched the key card, she reeled back with a pained cry, holding her hand as her fingertips burned.

"What the hell was that?!" She yelled.

"The key card can only be held by a Prime, or one chosen by a Prime. Trying to touch it otherwise would cause it to burn hotter than ionized plasma." Ratchet said.

"You could've mentioned that sooner you old gasket!" Skyfire yelled at him.

Annie looked at the little object in Gina's hand warily. "Gina isn't going to burst into flames, is she? We've had enough near death experiences in the past few days thank you very much."

"No, when Optimus gave her the key, it was linked to her biosignature. Only she can touch it without harm." Ratchet hummed and rubbed his chin. "This relic grants access to Vector Sigma, the source of all life on Cybertron from which we were born. Every cybertronian-Autobot, Decepticon, neutral or colonist, is born from it, and when we die, our Sparks return to it."

"That's…I don't even know how to describe it." Penny shook her head. She never really heard how Cybertronians were born, though this seemed rather fantastical to believe completely.

"In technical term, it's a supercomputer, though little is known about exactly what it is." Ratchet said. "But that's beside the point. The key could grant us a way to save Optimus."

"Excuse me?" Jazz said.

"Jazz, the key is the only way to access Vector Sigma, not to its location, but also the supercomputer itself. The legends state that the Matrix was a fragment of Vector Sigma, so if we download its energy into the key card, we can use it to purify the Matrix…"

"And cure Prime of the plague." Prowl finished, already knowing where this was going. "You might have something here, Ratchet, but it's an ambitious theory. Not a lot of concrete information to go on."

"I know, but it's all we have at the moment." Ratchet said.

"So," Darren began. "You're saying that the only surefire way to cure Optimus of the plague is to get Gina and the key to Vector Sigma. And to do that, we would have to-"

"Go to Cybertron." Gina gasped.

"Hope you're up for a road trip, little lady." Skyfire said. "You're taking a trip to the stars."

"Whoa, you guys are shipping Gina off to your home planet? That's beyond dangerous for a plan built on a lot of what ifs." Kevin said. "Couldn't you guys just take the Ark, fly off to Cybertron with the key and find Vector Sigma yourselves?"

"We can't just take the Ark and leave Terra to the Cons." Prowl said. "Not only will we give our position away upon take off, we still need to monitor their activities to avoid them causing more damage."

"Even if that wasn't the case, it's all in Gina's hands now. That ringing Gina is hearing is the Omega Frequency. This means that only she can operate the key and use it on Vector Sigma." Ratchet said.

The humans went silent at that. All this meant that Gina would have to go to Cybertron, a planet the Autobots have mentioned was already dead. Debbie was certainly not fond of the idea.

"No, you people are not sending her to another planet!" Debbie yelled. Annie put a hand on her shoulder.

"Debbie…"

"These kids have done enough for you already. Why make her go when one of you can do it?" She glared up at them.

"Debbie, it's not our choice." Arcee said softly. "Believe me, we wouldn't put this on Gina if there was another way, but it's out of our hands. But don't think for a second that she'll be going alone. Gina will have us backing her up, as well as Sureshock and Sara."

Debbie shook her head, unable to believe that another dangerous mission was thrust upon these kids once again. As if fighting that monster three weeks ago wasn't enough, now they were shipping Gina to another planet. Someone took her hand and she saw Gina staring up at her with a determined look on her young face.

"Debbie, please don't blame them." Gina said. "I know you're scared for us, I'm terrified of all this too. But the Autobots have risked their lives to protect this planet, and they're not even human. The least we can do is help them in their greatest time of need, just like they've done for us numerous times. I'm sure Optimus would do the same if we were in trouble."

The Autobots looked down at Gina with a new sense of respect for the girl. Gina was a hardcore fighter like Annie or a superpowered esper like Darren and Kevin, or even a rich girl with money at her hands like Penny. She was just a normal girl with a strong love for history, nerdy things, and the Autobots. They knew she was scared, but she was willing to put everything on the line to save their leader. To go to another planet to save a life from a different species took some courage.

Debbie saw that too and it was hard to deny her. Gina planned on seeing this through whether she liked it or not. That look in her eyes was the same look Debbie saw in Julia's whenever she was about to tackle something difficult or painful. Like mother, like daughter.

"You Autobots better keep her safe, you hear me?" Debbie said, smiling down at the girl. "She's one of a kind. You won't find someone like her in a million years."

"We know." Ratchet smiled.

"Wait, if we aren't using the Ark, how are we going to get to Cybertron?" Ironhide asked.

"The stargate!" Wheeljack exclaimed. "It still has all the components the Cons used to build it. I can easily repair it for us to use."

"But we aren't sure the gate alone can reach Cybertron accurately. If we're wrong, we could miss the planet and send them careening into space entirely." Ratchet said.

"We could use my transwarp drive." Skyfire suggested. Everyone turned to look at her with blank faces.

"Transwarp drive?" Wheeljack blinked.

"Yeah, that super-secret experimental teleportation drive Preceptor and Brainstorm made based off Skywarp's teleportation powers. It's how I got to this planet in the first place." She said. "They hooked it up to my innards and that mission I took was to test how far I could go. Pretty far apparently if I crashed on this rock."

"And you never mentioned this to us because…?" Bulkhead said slowly.

"It's dead. I used up all the power just to warp to this solar system. I didn't think it was worth mentioning since I couldn't use it anymore, so I just forgot about it." She shrugged.

"Okay we can work with that." Wheeljack nodded. "I can hook that drive up to the stargate and use it to pinpoint Cybertron more accurately. You'll be there and back in the blink of an eye, faster than a starship!"

"Now we're getting somewhere!" Jazz grinned and cracked his knuckles. "Then it's settled. Let's get to work, people! Boss bot needs us and we're going to need to help Gina every step of the way!"

XXXXXX

The site of the Nemesis was abuzz with activity as the Decepticons were hard at work with repairing the ship, mainly using materials pilfered from human facilities raided over the past few days. It took top priority above all else, since Megatron wasn't going to have his flagship waste away on a backwater planet like Terra. Their energon stores were slowly increasing back to previous levels with constant scouting and recollection on the Seekers' part, and work was beginning on repairing the Nemesis' power grid once the outer hull was fixed. Despite the work being done, for a Decepticon, it was a sorry sight for the ship that tore apart countless Autobot regiments on Cybertron. But Megatron wasn't too angry about his situation anymore, he just dealt the Autobots a serious blow and all he needed to do now was keep the pressure on them until they broke.

Megatron would never admit it openly, but it felt nostalgic, walking with Optimus as comrades instead of enemies. It reminded him of the days before the war, back when they had a common goal of achieving freedom and independence for all Cybertronians. Back when they shared the dream of reforming Cybertron into a world free of restrictions and classifications. Before Optimus betrayed their shared ideals…and took everything away from him. If only _she_ were here to see this. He knew she'd be proud to see them fighting together once more.

"As you can see, repairs are coming along slowly. The attack from that damned Cardinal had nearly destroyed the ship and us along with it." Megatron said as he and Prime walked the empty halls of the Nemesis.

"I see that you've also encountered the dolems. We've also had our fair share of encounters on the other side of the fence." Optimus said. "Perhaps after we conquer this world, we'll check out what else this planet has to offer. I'd like to spread our name across the cosmos without competition from outside forces."

Megatron smirked. "I like how you think, Optimus."

"Lord Megatron," Thundercracker said as he walked up to them. "We've managed to repair the outer hull near the engines, but the reactor is running low on energon. It's not maintaining a steady power level."

"Take your Seeker and raid the research facility in Ozark. They have a solar array large enough to power the reactor long enough for Soundwave to work on modifications." Megatron ordered.

"Yes, my lord." Thundercracker nodded and went to carry out his orders, but Optimus stopped him to give his own orders.

"Be sure to have Knockout work on that fragging ground bridge," Optimus said firmly. "I won't have myself thrown into space because that moron is busy admiring his reflection."

Thundercracker glared at Optimus, unwilling to take orders from a Prime of all people, but a discreet nod from Megatron forced him to reign in his temper before walking away. Once the Seeker was gone, Megatron turned to Optimus.

"Optimus, here on this island, I am the commander, and thus I give the orders around here. As long as you stand on this island, you answer to me. Are we clear?"

Optimus simply stared at Megatron, not the least bit intimidated by the warlord's command. Megatron returned his stare and they held gazes for a few minutes before Optimus nodded, breaking the tension.

"I understand…Lord Megatron." Optimus said. "It won't happen again."

Megatron smiled and nodded, letting Optimus be on his way. As Prime walked away, Megatron's smile fell and he glared at the retreating Prime before turned to return to the bridge to check up on Soundwave, only to be met with Nightshade's stern glare.

"We need to talk." She said curtly. It was clear that she wasn't taking no for an answer.

Megatron resisted the urge to snort at her attitude. This should be good. "Well then, let's talk."

Megatron and Nightshade went to his quarters, which miraculously survived Sapientia's assault on the ship. Once the door slid closed, Nightshade let her calm façade drop and whirled around on him.

"What the frag is this?" She hissed. "Bringing an enemy commander, a Prime, into our base and giving him a place on the team? Are you out of your mind?!"

"Watch yourself, Nightshade. I assure that I'm still within my right mind." Megatron growled. "This is why I withheld this information from you. You're a fine warrior, but you're prone to letting your emotions get the better of you at inappropriate times."

"Don't start listing my flaws and not expect me to compare them to your own." Nightshade said. "Who did you tell? I know you couldn't have planned this by yourself."

"Only Soundwave and Leader-1 were privy to my plans, not that it's any of your business. It was thanks to Laserbeak's reconnaissance that we even know of Prime's condition." He said.

Nightshade's face scrunched up in a sneer so full of scorn that he wondered if she had ever been this mad at someone who wasn't Starscream. "Leader-1? You included that little troll on your plan instead of your lieutenant?"

"Yes, I did. Having someone as powerful as Prime on our side will do great damage to enemy morale, much easier than wasting energon trying to kill him in this new, more ruthless state." Megatron replied, staring down at her unblinkingly. "I don't regret that decision, Nightshade. We've dealt the Autobots a serious blow this week. Know that everything I do is so we can win this war, or have you forgotten that after all these years of service?"

Nightshade was quiet at that. She used the uncomfortable silence between them to calm herself and return to her usual composure. But that didn't stop her from giving one last scathing comment to rattle Megatron's cage.

"You do remember what he did that day, don't you?" She asked softly. "What he took from you?"

"Don't be a fool, Nightshade," Megatron said, his voice uncharacteristically soft. He went to his desk and reached into a hidden compartment, taking out a smooth white feather and holding it up to the light. "I have never forgotten the day he betrayed our noble cause. The day he took the only thing that mattered to me. And don't you forget that!"

XXXXXX

Optimus made his way to the Nemesis' armory searching the gun stocks for something that he needed. He wasn't looking for a weapon, just a few specific components that were built into the blasters. It was slightly harder to do since many of these guns hadn't been used very often and suffered from a lack of energy. The fact half the armory was almost destroyed didn't help either.

"And what do you think you're doing?"

Optimus looked over his shoulder to see Flamewar leaning in the doorway. She smirked and sauntered into the room.

"You may have the others fooled, but I know just what you are." She said.

"And what is that?" Optimus turned to face her fully.

"Don't play coy. I know a conspirator when I see one." Flamewar laughed. "I just want to talk, no need to get so tense, hmm?"

Seeing that he was now giving her his full attention, Flamewar gave her offer. "You know, you're a big, strong mech with clearly better battlefield skills than Megatron. Your skills are wasted here fighting for his half-assed cause."

"Get to the point."

"What I'm trying to say is that we should join forces. With my cunning and your leadership abilities, we can easily ditch the Cons and Bots to rule this planet ourselves." Flamewar stepped up to him. "What do you say?"

Flamewar held out her hand for him to shake. Optimus looked at her, looking like he was actually considering it.

"You have an interesting offer, and you make a good point…if I had any intention of joining you!"

Optimus snatched Flamewar up by the neck and slammed her against the wall. He pinned her arm to the wall, almost breaking her wrist as he leaned in to glare at her.

"I know your kind, scavenger. You're not the kind to adhere to any authority, not Megatron's and certainly not mine. You'd stab me in the back as soon as Megatron's dead." He growled. "So here's my counteroffer; you will help me gain control of the Decepticons, you will heed my orders and if you even think about squealing I will do your former lover a favor by ripping out your Spark core and making you eat it. What do you say to that?"

"I-I'd say we have a deal." Flamewar stammered. She knew a real threat when she heard it and he wasn't kidding about making her suffer.

"Good."

Optimus dropped her to the floor like a lump of coal and went back to the weapons rack. Why should he share the power with anyone? He was a Prime, the face of Primus himself. A god among men. Autobots and Decepticons were nothing but scrap for the mill in his ascension to greatness. He wasted far too many opportunities to kill Megatron in the past, and it cost him too much. He was standing next to the devil himself and he'd be a fool to squander a chance to run him through.

Unseen in the shadows, Laserbeak narrowed his eyes as he recorded everything. This is something Soundwave needed to hear.

XXXXXX

It took two days for the Autobots to get the Stargate operational again. In truth, the technical team working nonstop were almost done fixing the machine in a single day, but the rest of the time was spent making sure everything looked okay and no malfunctions would happen during transport. In the meantime, Prowl contacted a trusted ally off world about the situation and informed them of the operation to Cybertron. Gina and her team would need all the help they could get on Cybertron.

Activating the Stargate itself was too risky, as the energy dispersion used to create the portal would draw the Cons' attention. Prowl and Ratchet decided to play it safe and have Skyfire transport their friends to Cybertron, limiting the danger of being detected. Because of the smaller size of the transwarp drive, only two other people would be able to go with Skyfire. Gina was going of course, and Arcee was the second choice, her smaller size would put less strain on the drive's teleportation abilities. Sureshock and Sara wanted to go along with Gina, but they understood the technical limitations. The less mass transported, the easier the stress will be on the transwarp drive.

As for Gina, she was busy preparing for what could be the most dangerous mission in her life. According to Ratchet, Cybertron once had a breathable atmosphere rick in oxygen and hydrogen for carbon-based life forms, though by the time of The Fall, its ecosystem was in a severe decline. Thus, Wheeljack enabled Gina's pilot suit to be usable in zero-G conditions, keeping her safe if her talos' cockpit was breeched.

After a tense wait, it was time for the mission to start. Wheeljack and Bulkhead, who had a surprising amount of knowledge on how to build and repair ground bridges, headed the technical operations with the Stargate, with Ratchet acting as a third hand along with Liftor and Roll Bar's help.

"Ratchet, hook up the reactor to the E.F. module and set the energon flow to 78%," Bulkhead instructed. "But do it slowly or you'll cause the pumps to overload."

"Energon flow is stable." Ratchet reported, lying on his back as he hooked the tubes to the main generator. "I'm increasing the percentage."

"Prowl, are the coordinates locked in?" Bulkhead asked. Prowl's task was to download information from Teletran-1 to the computer used for targeting the location in space.

"Teletran just downloaded the coordinates. We're good here." Prowl said.

"Good. Now all we need to do," Bulkhead turned to Skyfire and Wheeljack. "Is hook up the Stargate to your transwarp drive."

Skyfire was standing at the center of Stonehenge with Wheeljack fiddling around with the small component in her lower abdomen. She was wiggling in place, giggling a bit as Wheeljack rooted around in her torso.

"Skyfire, could you please stand still? I'm trying to work here." Wheeljack said.

"You try having someone poke around in your hood and try to stand still." Skyfire said. "Usually the guy would ask the girl out on a date before doing this."

"Skyfire, honestly." Comettor shook his head at his partner's behavior.

Arcee, who was waiting anxiously on the side, walked over to Bulkhead tapping her foot impatiently. "Bulkhead, are you done yet?"

"We're doing a few more system checks, Arcee, just hold on." Bulkhead said.

"This is murder." Arcee muttered. If this worked, then she'd be one of the first Autobots to step foot on Cybertron since the mass exodus. Going to the planet she watched slowly die…to the place where her sister was killed…the stress was starting to get to her.

"Arcee," Jazz walked up to her and gave her a calming smile. "Relax and clear your mind. Don't let your fears and worries cloud your thoughts. Just focus on getting the job done. Keep thinking bad thoughts, then what you're worried about happening will happen."

"I know." She smiled and nodded. "Always with the sayings. Where did you get that one?"

"Yoketron. It's his motto, clear your mind and focus on the task at hand. Succeed and you will succeed, fail and you will fail." He grinned. "In times like these, you don't have the luxury of worrying about the what-ifs."

Arcee chuckled and hugged Jazz. He was always there for her when she needed saving and even now he was still watching over her. Was there any way to pay him back for all of his help? She felt something rub against her ankle and she looked down to see Emulator snuggling against her leg in her beast mode.

"I'll miss you to, Emulator." Arcee rubbed her fingertip along the Minicon's back.

"You better come by or I'll scratch up your room, nya." Emulator said and shifted into robot mode. "I'm serious. My claws are sharp enough to do the job, nya."

"I wouldn't doubt it."

"Okay, we're all set over here." Wheeljack said, standing up.

"We're good on our end too." Bulkhead said.

Ratchet nodded and looked at Prowl. "Send the others over."

The ground bridge appeared and Sparkplug, Sureshock and Sara appeared with the rest of the humans. Gina was in her talos, Athena, walking over to the Stargate next to Skyfire and Arcee. Once she got her talos into position, she left the cockpit and went over to her friends to say goodbye.

"You take care of yourself, you hear? I don't want Penny tearing ranting endlessly because her rival died on an alien planet." Kevin teased.

"Shut up, Kevin!" Penny pouted and turned to Gina. Look, I know we haven't always been on good terms, nor have we spent that much time together, but I hope you come back safely. I'm still pissed that you're going to be the first human to step foot on an alien world, but considering the circumstances, I'll concede this victory to you. Just this once."

"That's a first." Kevin whistled. Penny punched his shoulder.

Gina smiled and hugged them both. "Thank you both for everything."

Annie stepped up and grinned at her best friend. "I don't think I need to say what a cool best friend you are. And don't think this is me saying goodbye, because I know you're coming back. Now get out there and represent our planet! In the name of science!"

"You bet!" Gina fist bumped Annie and they shared a hug.

Then she turned to Darren, who looked just as nervous as her to see her off. He gave her a small smile and shrugged.

"What can I say?" He said. "You've done a lot of cool things since meeting the Autobots and you're making history here. I'm happy for you, but…it's hard seeing you go and not be able to come with you."

"I know, Darren, but you're strong. A lot stronger than me, at least." Gina said.

Darren looked at his feet before taking a deep breath and looked back at her. "Gina, I-"

She put a finger to his lips to stop him there. "Don't. I'll lose my nerve."

Darren smiled sadly and they hugged each other tightly, this hug lasing a little longer than the others. They parted as Sureshock and Ratchet walked up to them and Gina hugged her Minicon friend tightly.

"Arcee better keep you safe or there'll be hell to pay." Sureshock vowed.

"Don't worry, I've got some of the best ladies in the galaxy watching my back. In the meantime, keep watch over Sara, she'll get lonely too, even if she doesn't show it." Gina said.

"I won't be sad, Ms. Gina. I know you will come back." Sara said, sounding assured with her decision. She didn't hug Gina, but they did clasp hands, which meant more than a hug for the android. "Stay safe, Ms. Gina."

"I will." Gina said and then looked up at Ratchet. "Are you going to start crying too, Ratchet?"

"I doubt it'll change anything if I could cry. Just stay close to Arcee and Skyfire." Ratchet said. "And be sure to make the most of your trip. I don't think you'll get another chance like this anytime soon."

He knelt down and Gina hugged his finger. When she stepped back, she said something that would stay with Ratchet for a long time. "Ratchet…if something does happen, I want you to know that…you were like the grandfather I never had."

Ratchet didn't have anything to say to that, shocked speechless by her admission as Gina ran over to her talos and climbed back into the cockpit after giving everyone a final wave. Debbie ran up to Arcee and Skyfire and gave them a stern look.

"Take good care of Gina, okay? It's hard enough trying to keep this from her mother. The last thing I need is telling her that her daughter is lost in space." Debbie said.

"We'll take good care of the brat, Debbie. Don't get your panties in a twist." Skyfire said carelessly. Arcee, as per her duty, elbowed her in the chest.

"Don't be crass, Skyfire." Arcee scolded her.

"And you be careful too, Arcee." Debbie smiled. "It'd be a shame to lose you after all this trouble."

"I've managed to survive this long, haven't I?" Arcee said. She leaned down and patted Debbie on the back, allowing the young woman to hug her large hand.

With their goodbyes said and done, the trio stood in the center of the site waiting for Bulkhead to give the all clear. A few cables were connected to Skyfire's torso, leading to the targeting computer where Wheeljack was managing the console. They had to make sure the team made it to their destination, or at least the general vicinity. Arcee gave a thumbs up for the all clear and Wheeljack powered up the reactor. Skyfire then activated her transwarp drive when the power level reached over seventy percent.

The drive inside her body gave a low hum as it activated and a dome of energy projected from her body to encase Arcee and Gina as well. Surrounded by a warp bubble, they were at the heart of a storm of energy as the drive teleported them through space from Terra in a process that only took a few seconds to those watching from the sidelines. As quick as it began…it was over.

The stargate released a powerful energy discharge that lasted only a second with a loud boom. When the energy levels returned to normal, all that was left in Stonehenge was dust in the air.

Wheeljack took a moment to see if they reached their destination. After a few tense seconds, he sighed and nodded. "They made it."

Everyone breathed sighs of relief as they released the breaths they were holding. Debbie gave a little "thank god" and hugged Darren and Annie.

"Now all that's left is to wait." Prowl said.

"Yes," Ratchet nodded and looked up at the sky. "It's all in their hands now."

XXXXXX

The transwarp sequence was very disorientating to Gina, even more so than going through the ground bridge for the first time. One moment she was standing in the middle of Stonehenge, the next there was a bright flash of light that nearly shorted out her talos' camera sensors, followed by the feeling of being squeezed through something like a tube. She had no idea how transwarp travel worked, only that it was like space folding on a smaller scale, which didn't help since she had no idea what folding felt like.

When the light vanished, she found herself flying through the air out of control. A quick twist of the joysticks allowed the Athena to right itself in the air, but she still hit the ground harder than she wanted. Gina braced herself as her talos slid through the ground before coming to a stop.

"Damn it that was a bad landing." Gina groaned and sat back. When she got her talos upright, she was greeted by a vast plain of rock and metal before her, an alien landscape stretching as far as the eye could see under a starry sky. "Jinkies…"

"Gina!"

Gina looked over to where she heard her name and saw Skyfire waving at her from atop a hill with Arcee. She smiled and glided over to the two Autobots, taking in the surreal environment, which was composed of an odd fusion of rock and metal. The hill they stood on overlooked a deep canyon, which had a forest of tall spiraling towers of steel reaching at least twenty feet into the air.

"Gina," Arcee said as the girl flew over to them. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm just a bit dizzy from the warping. I didn't have an easy landing."

"Neither did we. Someone forgot to mention how violent the transwarping would be." Arcee glared pointedly at Skyfire, who waved her off.

"Get off my back, how do you think I crashed into Terra? Told you this thing was experimental." Skyfire muttered, rolling her shoulders to work out the stiffness in her joints. "At least we're in the right star system."

Gina looked around, marveling at the strange environment she found herself in. There weren't any visible signs of life, or any settlements for that matter, which was strange. "This is Cybertron? It's…not what I was expecting for your home planet, Arcee."

"This isn't Cybertron, Gina. This is Solomus, the smallest of our two moons." Arcee pointed at the sky. "That's Cybertron."

Gina looked to the sky and gasped upon seeing the massive planet hanging above them. Cybertron, the homeworld of the cybertronian race. It was larger than Gina thought possible, larger than Terra, probably matching Saturn in size alone. But it was different from the planet she saw in her dreams; it was an amazing sight to see, a world made of metal, with continents divided by deep canyons that made the land look like a jigsaw puzzle. However the planet lacked the signs of life she saw in her dream. Everything was dark, lifeless, and the planet felt a little cold now that she saw it in person.

"Jinkies, I'm staring at an alien planet." Gina breathed. "My god, I can't believe I'm doing this! We're here, guys!"

"Not exactly." Arcee crossed her arms and glared at Skyfire. "Why are we on Solomus, Skyfire?"

"We've must have misfired." Skyfire sighed. "The transwarp drive isn't very accurate when you're using it to go to a specific place. I only made it to Terra because I had external help from Perceptor and his fancy gadgets. That stargate isn't very accommodating for cybertronian tech."

"Skyfire, you do realize that the Autobot team Prowl called in thinks we're on the planet that we completely missed in our transwarp jump." Arcee said.

"Sorry, love." Skyfire shrugged.

"Can you at least fly us to Cybertron?" Gina asked. She wasn't sure how far it was between Solomus and Cybertron, but her talos could only fly for so long before needing to recharge.

"I'm low on fuel, kid. The transwarp drive needs to cool down and I'll go into stasis lock if I try using that thing again." Skyfire said. "If I push it, we'll get stuck halfway between Cybertron and the moons."

"Maybe I can fly there." Gina suggested.

"Not without us you aren't. You'll get shot out of the sky by lingering Decepticon warships, and that's if your talos can even handle Cybertron's gravity." Arcee said.

"So what are we supposed to do?!" Gina yelled, getting frustrated.

Arcee pressed the Autobot symbol on her chest. "I activated my emergency locator beacon. When the Autobot team gets here, hopefully they can detect my signal before they make planetfall."

Skyfire groaned. "I knew this was a crappy idea."

"Shut up, Skyfire."

XXXXXX

They haven't even started looking for Vector Sigma before things started going wrong. Arcee, Gina and Skyfire wandered the wilderness of Cybertron's second smallest moon. In order for the signal to be detected, they had to keep the planet within their sights so it wouldn't be lost or blocked by magnetic interference. In the meantime, Gina learned more about the moons themselves.

Arcee told her that the moons were primarily the home of the Minicons. They were about half the diameter of Terra and had about the same level of gravity as well. Tring to explore the entire moon was pointless without any vehicles and they had to conserve as much energy as possible. What wayward settlements they found were mostly destroyed from space debris and previous raids that left much of the former Minicon territory in shambles.

It was only after seeing the desolate homes and buildings that it truly hit Gina that these moons were once the homes of Sparkplug, Sureshock and the others. They were born here, lived here, and were forced to leave it all behind. These moons once harbored life and now it was as dead as the planet they orbited.

'I wonder what this place looked like before the war reached it.' Gina thought, thinking back to Mugen and what she had gone through. 'Did Mugen's home survive? What would she say if she saw her home like this?'

"My first visit to an alien planet and I get stranded on its moon." Gina sighed. "Nothing like your typical "lost in space" scenario to kick things off."

"Give me a break, girl, it's not my fault I got stuck using outdated hardware to get here." Skyfire grumbled. "You bozos were the ones who wanted to get here fast."

"Don't argue, guys." Arcee said, sitting on a boulder. "Let's rest up before we try to fly to Cybertron."

"Fly? I told you, Cee, I don't have enough energon to-"

"We don't have a choice! It's already been half an hour and still no response to my signal. We have to reach Cybertron now, even if you have to float the rest of the way there." Arcee said. She was getting sick of Skyfire's whining and she felt like punching the femme at this point.

"Guys, quiet!" Gina hissed. "I think I hear something."

Arcee and Skyfire listened and also heard a noise-a faint buzzing that was growing louder as it drew closer. They took out their weapons and stood in a circle with Gina as the buzzing increased in volume until it was loud enough that they could barely hear each other.

"What's that noise?" Skyfire asked.

"Trouble." Arcee said.

In the distance, a swarm of large purple metal insects that looked like giant robot Hercules beetles flew over the horizon like a biblical plague, zeroing in on the girls. Each bug was about the same size as Optimus and had a hard metal carapace that looked like it could take a great deal of damage along with curved steel horns. Gina recognized their designs from an earlier encounter with a similar creature back on Terra.

"Insecticons!" Gina switched on her flight mode and flew back, shooting pulse blasts at invading bugs. Her powerful beams shot down a couple of Insecticons, but more quickly replaced their fallen brethren to swarm them.

Arcee and Skyfire shot down as many as possible, but some Insecticons landed and charged at them. One Insecticon transformed into a large, hulking brute with sharp teeth. It gave a bone chilling howl as it ran at the Autobots and attacked. Arcee ducked under its large claws and stabbed her swords into its chest, slashing upwards to sever its arms in one go before stabbing it in the head. Another rushed at her from behind and she flipped over it, spinning in the air to behead it in a single swing.

Skyfire took a couple down with her photon cannons before switching to her bayonet and slashing away at the Insecticons that got too close. She tried to fly for some air support, but the sky was full of those bugs and she didn't want to get ambushed in midair.

"There's too many of them!" Skyfire yelled, jumping back to avoid a couple of lasers shot at her. "We got bail!"

"Where? They're coming from everywhere!" Gina fired her agni cannon in an arc that destroyed two dozen Insecticons in the air, but more charged at her. She tried to fly away, but an Insecticon slammed into her talos and knocked her over.

"Gina!" Arcee cut down another bug and turned to Skyfire. "Help her!"

Skyfire nodded and transformed, hovering high enough that she could fire two missiles at the Insecticon. They hit their mark, blasting the brute apart and allowing Gina to get back to her feet. Another Insecticon that looked like a dark brown robotic ant-lion leapt onto Skyfire and tore into her wing with its pincers before being forced off. Skyfire transformed and hit the ground near Gina, who helped her up.

"We're being overrun!" Arcee said as she drove over to them. She transformed and carved out the chest of another Insecticon before jumping over to the girls.

Gina cursed and charged up her agni cannon again. She was using it too much, but she needed to create an opening for them to escape through. Just a she prepared to fire the cannon, the swarm around them was suddenly attacked by a rain of fire.

"What the…" Gina gasped as the Insecticons surrounding them were destroyed in a rain of missile fire from above. She and the two Autobots looked up to see a large lavender space shuttle hovering over their positon, unleashing a storm of incendiary fire on the Insecticons. The sudden assault was enough to frighten the surviving Insecticons into retreated, and they scattered, flying or running away.

"Who just saved us?" Gina wondered.

She got her answer as the ship landed on the ground and the landing hatch swung open to reveal two figures. They were femmes, Autobots; the first femme was bright blue with wheels on the backs of her shoulders and legs and stood at sixteen feet. The other femme was a mix between red and orange, with a slender frame and a head of flames emulating hair.

"Chromia, Firestar!" Arcee exclaimed, though Gina could barely understand her words. The girl realized that Arcee had switched to speaking cybertronian.

"Arcee." Chromia, the blue femme, grinned. Her voice sounded rough and hard, reminding Gina of a grizzled war veteran who's been through tough times. "You've been busy lately."

"You have no idea." Arcee laughed, relieved at seeing a familiar face.

Firestar looked at Skyfire and Gina and smirked. "And it looks like you brought some friends over. Well let's get them back to the Avenger before more of those bugs come back."

Arcee smiled and nodded. All her earlier worries were sitting at the back of her mind now as she reunited with her old friends, people who helped her after her sister's death. Now she felt like she was home again.


	5. Light in the Dark part 3

Chapter 5-Light in the Dark part 3

Chromia and Firestar brought the three wayward travelers onboard their shuttle and took them to where their battleship was stationed.

"Why are we heading to your ship? I thought we were going to Cybertron?" Skyfire asked.

"We're taking you to the Lilac Avenger to a quick debriefing session." Chromia said, glancing back at the trio from her pilot seat. "Everyone has questions, but it'd be better to chat in a place not infested with Insecticons."

"Didn't Prowl already tell you the situation?" Arcee questioned.

"He gave us the bare minimum of answers. He said it was only for Elita-1's audials only, need to know." Firestar sounded exasperated as she said this, a tone often associated with how people felt about Prowl. "All he said was that Prime was in serious danger and it could affect how the war turns out from here on out."

"That's the gist of it, but it's a lot worse than that." Arcee said.

Firestar nodded and looked at the Athena. "So who's your friend here? We got another strong silent type in the house?"

"Don't be a stranger, stranger. Is he a neutral or…?" Chromia asked.

"Actually it's a she, and she's inside the machine." Arcee explained. "Her name's Gina and this is her robotic battle suit, a talos that she pilots. She's a human native to the planet my team's stationed on."

Arcee sent the data packet carrying information on human language and terminology over to Chromia and Firestar, which they instantly downloaded.

"Nice to meet you…Gina, was it?" Chromia said, nodding to the girl.

"You can speak my language now?" Gina asked.

"Now that we're finally talking, yeah. It's hard to learn new languages when you can't hear them." Firestar grinned at the human. "I'm Firestar and that's Chromia. We're Autobots, but you already know that."

"Not every day we get an organic who likes hanging out with Autobots. Usually they're either staying far away from us or trying to blow us straight to hell."

"It was mostly by accident that we met, but I'm happy to have met the team." Gina said. "And it's a pleasure to meet you too."

"You can tell us the story of how you guys met at the ship. I'm sure Elita-1 will want to know what the hell's going on that planet of yours." Chromia said.

It didn't take long to reach the ship, which was called the Lilac Avenger. According to Arcee, it was the main ship of the Autobot strike team, the Valkyries. Gina gasped at the magnificent vessel. It was almost the same size as the Ark, with magenta and black armor and looked more slender and streamlined than the Ark and actually looked ready for battle.

The shuttle landed next to the battleship and Chromia and Firestar escorted the group into the vessel. Gina was already taking pictures with her talos' camera sensors as she entered the ship with her friends. There weren't that many Autobot around, and Gina noticed that they all were femmes. It wasn't long before Gina met the Valkyries' leader, who met up with them in the ship's shuttle bay.

"Arcee and…Skyfire?" The team's commander walked up to them, and once more Gina was stunned by her appearance. She was a tall pink femme, standing at seventeen feet in height, and slender in form. Her head was covered in ornamental spikes, with what looked like a crest of royalty on her forehead. Wheels rested on the backs of her legs and on her shoulders, indication of a car-based alt mode. Her face was beautiful yet regal, and Gina found herself reminded of Optimus with how this femme carried herself. "How are you alive? We thought you perished in the transwarp drive test!"

"I survived and crashed onto a planet from orbit." Skyfire said, as if it was something that happened every day. "Got stuck in stasis for a couple thousand cycles, but I woke up and buffed out the dents. Nothing special."

"How humble you are." Arcee droned. She turned back to the femme and saluted her. "It's good to see you again, commander."

"Likewise, Arcee. It is good to see that you're doing better." The femme smiled and looked at the talos next to her. "And who is your friend here?"

"Gina Harkins, she's one of the humans we made contact with on Terra." Arcee said and turned to Gina. "Gina, this is Elita-1, commander of the Valkyries and a member of Autobot High Command."

XXXXXX

Megatron sat on his throne inside the command bunker's command center reading up on the updates to the Nemesis' repairs. Things were going smoothly, and their energon stocks were steadily replenishing with ease, which was good. Having Optimus on the team made things easier, especially with the Autobots hanging back in whatever hole they dug themselves into. Still, he was a bit concerned that he hadn't seen any sign of them snice their last encounter. They were definitely planning something, and he no idea what. It was infuriating.

Another point of concern was something Laserbeak brought to his attention. He reported that the huntress had tried to convince Optimus to turn against him. It didn't surprise Megatron, that witch was bound to struggle in this web she got herself caught in sooner or later. What was concerning was that Flamewar's treachery might convince Prime to stand against him in the future, but so far he made no moves to do so. And that was troubling.

"Lord Megatron."

Knockout entered the room with a datapad in hand. "Knockout, what are the results of Prime's physical?"

"Scans indicate that Prime's infection lies deep, very deep. His body's been fully corrupted by the virus, but I'm still puzzled about how he's able to retain his rational mind." Knockout said.

"It's of no important to me." Megatron said. "Is there of a danger of him infecting the rest of the crew?"

"No, he's non-contagious, thank Primus." Knockout muttered.

Megatron nodded. As long as Optimus wasn't a walking biohazard, he was fine.

"But a word of warning, my lord. Prime may be docile now, but the infection will slowly make him more aggressive. Even the littlest thing will set him off as the virus clouds his mind and very soon we may have a berserker in our midst." Knockout said seriously. "The plague has already enhanced his physical abilities. If he remains in this state, we may have an uncontrollable, rabid Prime on our hands."

"I know of the plague's capabilities, Knockout. I helped create the damn virus!" Megatron growled. "Do not presume to tell me how my own formula works!"

"Apologies, my lord." Knockout stammered. "I'll show myself out."

Knockout scurried out the door as if Unicron was on his heels, leaving Megatron alone. He knew it was only a matter of time before Optimus lost his reason; that was what the hate plague was designed to do after all. It was only a matter of time before Prime made his power play. Still, it was a bit disappointing. Having the power of a Prime under his command would've made his victory absolute. Together, they would have been an unstoppable force.

All that mattered was waiting for Prime to make the first move, for that was always the most crucial, pivotal moment of any battle, on or off the battlefield.

XXXXXX

After getting situated in the Lilac Avenger, Elita-1 brought Arcee to her private office for a debriefing of the situation as Skyfire waited for Gina in the airlock. Arcee wasted no time in explaining everything in vivid detail, from Megatron's discovery of the stargate and the D-11 container, to Optimus using the Matrix to absorb the hate plague into his body, infecting his mind and turning into a savage warrior. Elita-1 was silent the entire time, her expression unreadable, but Arcee could tell that she was distressed at this news.

When Arcee was finally done, Chromia was the one to break the tense silence. "No wonder Prowl wanted to keep this under wraps. If the others got wind of this we'd all be eating slag right now."

"Of all the planets that accursed plague had to land it had to be on the same planet you were stationed." Elita-1 muttered and shook her head. "And Ratchet thinks that the key might cure Optimus?"

"Yes. He thinks that by interfacing with Vector Sigma, its energy can somehow purify Optimus." Arcee said.

"But Vector Sigma's been dark for mega-cycles. Will it even work?" Firestar asked.

"We're hoping it will. We're out of options right now, so we're desperate." Arcee said.

"And Optimus bestowed the key onto this human girl you've befriended." Elita-1 nodded. "Quite a curious decision to make, but we with have to make do with what we have."

"Have the Cons taken action lately?" Arcee asked. Elita-1 shook her head.

"No, nothing's changed on the front lines. I take it Megatron hasn't revealed this development to his army yet."

"Which is fortunate for us. The last thing we need is the Cons getting a morale boost this late into the damn war." Chromia sighed.

Arcee frowned. If Megatron was keeping this little trump card close to his chest, then he must be planning something else. Will they ever get a break? "Does anyone else know?"

"Only Ultra Magnus and Thunderclash. I haven't informed anyone else not involved. They've sworn to keep this a secret, but if Megatron opens the lid on this situation, we'll have a disaster on our hands." Elita-1 said. "This means that our window for operating will be extremely small, so once we're done here, we will need to mobilize at once."

At the other end of the ship, two Autobots were manning the pressure chamber to adjust the ship's atmospheric regulator so that Gina can breathe without her talos and pilot suit. The first Autobot was a red and black mech with a large microscope on his shoulder and a diagnostic lens over his left eye like a monocle. He was Perceptor, Chief Autobot Scientist and head of the Autobot research division. His partner was a white and red femme with a bulky body and a red visor, another member of the Valkyries. One her hands was replaced with a laser scalpel, but it didn't seem to hamper her dexterity as she checked the pressure controls and computers.

Skyfire swaggered over to her and leaned against the wall. "Yo."

Hello." She said, not even glancing at her.

Not one to give up on the first try, Skyfire tried to keep the conversation going. "What's your name?"

"Lifeline."

"Lifeline, that's a nice name. Fits the whole stern but sexy medic look." Skyfire gave an unseen grin. "For a doctor, you certainly know how to make my Spark flat line."

"Look, Skyfire, if you don't mind, I'm a little busy here." Lifeline said tersely. "I need to make sure the air pressure is leveled and safe to breath. If I mess up, your little friend here could suffocate and implode, and I'm sure Arcee will actually skin you alive."

"Damn girl, you don't play nice."

"I don't play at all. I'd apologize, but that would be lying and I can't tell lies in my profession." Lifeline pushed her aside and leaned in to the intercom. "All right, little one, the air has been saturated with oxygen. You can come in now."

The door slid open and the Athena stepped into the hall, its armor scuffed and dirty from its stint n Solomus. Gina powered her talos down and opened the hatch, climbing to the floor and taking off her helmet with a deep breath. She smiled up at them and wiped the sweat from her brow.

"Thanks, I thought I was going to be stuck wearing that helmet for my entire visit here." Gina said.

"We're designed our ships to accommodate organic visitors if need be, mainly alien diplomats. You'd be surprised how many species are carbon-based like you humans." Perceptor stepped forward and nodded. "I am Perceptor, chief scientist of the Autobots."

"Hi!" Gina waved up at him.

"Welcome to the Lilac Avenger, Gina Harkins." Elita-1 said as she entered the hall with Arcee and Chromia. "I want to personally thank you for risking your life to help Optimus and his team. It's a rarity to find organics like you willing to help us at the cost of their lives."

"It wasn't mostly by choice, but I'm glad to help in anyway." Gina said. She filed that bit about the aliens away for later. She figured that not many other races are as accepting of the cybertronian civil war as she was.

"Now that we have the pleasantries out of the way, let's get started with the reason you're here." Chromia said.

"Yes, that. Forgive me for my bluntness, Gina, but what you're trying to do is highly dangerous and impossible." Perceptor said. "There is no cure for the hate plague."

"We know that, Perceptor, but if there's a chance that Vector Sigma can at least help Optimus, then we must take it." Arcee said. "We're out of options here. Prowl and the others are doing their best back on Terra, but it's only a matter of time before Megatron goes in for the kill."

"Assuming we can even find Vector Sigma." Chromia chimed in. "That thing's been found only twice in recent times, and never in the same place. Good luck traversing those ruins for a single giant ball."

"What does she mean?" Gina asked.

"Vector Sigma never remains in the same place for too long. It's constantly moving, traveling through the planet while releasing pulsewaves that ignite hot spots for newborn Sparks." Elita-1 explained. "With Cybertron in the state it's in now, it might be stationary, but we don't know for sure."

"Well then," Gina breathed in. "We better go find out for ourselves."

"What you're suggesting here is…insane." Lifeline said. "Are you even sure that your plan might work?"

"Well, sweetheart," Skyfire said, earning a glare from Lifeline. "It's the only other solution we can think of that didn't include tying Prime up and throwing away the key. The last time we tried hauling his aft back, he kicked all of our asses ten ways from Omikron."

"Please, Elita-1, we're hoping that you could help us in some way." Arcee pleaded. "I know this is asking a lot from you, but if it's possible…"

"Say no more, Arcee, I will help you. Anything to save Optimus." Elita-1 smiled. "But I must warn you, Gina Harkins. Cybertron is a very hostile place to all forms of life, now. Before we leave, we must outfit you with radiation protection."

"Radiation?" Gina gulped. "The planet's condition is that worse?"

"When a planet loses its atmosphere for million years, it tends to lose its luster after a while." Chromia said dryly.

"Lifeline, could you see to it that Arcee and Gina are outfitted with rad-shields?" Elita-1 requested. "Perceptor, see to Skyfire's transwarp drive."

"I'll work hard, Elita-1, but working on Skyfire's transwarp drive will take a while." Perceptor said.

"Just do the best you can, Perceptor. These three need to get back to Terra at once."

Perceptor nodded and escorted Skyfire away, ignoring her complaints about wanting to be attended to by a femme scientist. Lifeline brought Arcee and Gina's talos over to her lab to install their rad-shields. Elita-1 looked down and saw Gina fidgeting nervously and smiled down at her.

"Don't worry, Gina, we will get you to your goal. But this preparation is necessary if you want to traverse Cybertron's landscape." She said and looked forlornly out the window.

"The war did that much damage to the planet?" Gina asked softly.

"Yes, and we have no one else to blame but us. The War for Cybertron took a heavy toll on all of us. We never looked past the next punch in the fight, or the next shot fired." Elita-1 sighed. "When the smoke cleared, all we were left with was a dead planet that no longer accepted us anymore. Cybertron stopped being our home, and we were forced to leave. And that was only the start of our long list of sins we've committed in this war."

XXXXXX

"Flamewar! Megatron wants to see you!" Starscream called out into the halls. Two months later and he was still incensed about being that femme's handler. "Flamewar, where the hell are you?"

He went to her quarters and peeked inside, only to yelp when he saw the animal heads mounted on the wall above her bed. He quickly shut the door and walked down the hall, grumbling about traitorous psychos and being an errand boy for Megatron. As soon as he turned the corner, Flamewar exited the storage room on the other side of the hall, carrying a few machine components in her arms, mainly circuit boards and plastic explosives. Looking around to make sure the coast was clear, she made her way to the room near the energon storage vault, which was (not so) coincidentally Prime's current quarters. She opened the door and was met with a cloud of smoke in her face.

Coughing slightly, she waved the smoke away from her face and entered the room, peering inside to see Optimus' bent over a work table. Sparks flew from his hands as he worked on some obscure secret project that was having her gather materials for. Looking at how the sparks from his torch welder reflected off his pitch black armor, Flamewar realized that having a rogue Prime on the island was probably the most dangerous thing Megatron had ever done. But she steeled herself and cleared her throat to announce her presence.

"Prime, I got your little trinkets for you." She said rudely.

"Took you long enough." Optimus said, not even looking at her. "Put it down over there and get out."

Flamewar held back a growl. She didn't take this slag from Megatron and Nightshade, and she sure as well wasn't going to be ordered around by a Prime. Thinking she had the advantage of a sneak attack over him, Flamewar shifted her hand into her blaster and pointed it at Prime's back.

Before she could even think about firing her weapon, Optimus spun around and backhanded her into the wall. She crumpled to the floor as Optimus stood over her, glaring down at her angrily with his red eyes.

"Don't even try that on me, Flamewar. I know well enough not to completely take my attention off you for a micro-second." Optimus growled and waved her away like an annoying dog. "Now get out before I mount _your_ head on my wall."

Flamewar sneered at him before getting up and leaving the room, not giving Optimus a second glance. As she marched down the hall, she ran into Starscream around the corner, who almost yelped a second time that day and glared at her.

"Flamewar, where the hell have you been?" He growled.

"Having some time to myself, genius. I have better things to do than entertain your peasantries." Flamewar replied angrily.

"Bah, never mind. Megatron wants to see us right now, so I suggest that we do not keep him waiting." Starscream said. He abruptly turned around and walked to the bridge, with Flamewar following.

Meanwhile, Megatron was getting some unexpected and troubling news from Soundwave. News he wasn't pleased to hear.

"Someone activated the Stargate?" Megatron said, blinking in surprise. "But how? The Autobots destroyed it!"

"I double checked the readings, Megatron. There was a small surge of quantum energy related to spatial distortion coming from the same location as Stonehenge." Soundwave said. "It's the Stargate."

"The Autobots," Megatron growled. "They're behind this! First they destroy the Stargate, and now they use it for themselves!"

"But why would they use the Stargate?" Nightshade asked. "It hasn't even been tested, and I don't see why they would want to use it considering they still have the Ark on this planet."

"I think we can all guess why, Nightshade." Megatron grinned savagely. "Soundwave, monitor the Stargate for any more activity and update me regularly. Once our forces have returned from recon, we'll pay the Autobots a little visit."

XXXXXX

'I thought I had gotten used to seeing giant robots walk around me, but this is something else.' Gina thought as she watched the Autobots aboard the Avenger run around in preparation for the coming mission. Once Elita-1 greenlit the mission, her team were quick to resupply the shuttle they were going to use to reach Cybertron and stock up on weapons and supplies for the dangerous mission. After hearing about the hazardous conditions on Cybertron, Gina could understand their thoroughness.

While waiting for the Valkyries to finish preparations, Arcee took the time to explain to Gina who they were. The Valkyries were an all-female Autobot unit under the command of Elita-1. They were primarily a black-ops team that took on a variety of missions, not all of them combat-oriented. Elita-1 was the leader, with Chromia as her lieutenant and sometimes commander when Elita-1 had other duties to attend to. Along with Firestar, the team's rescue and medical soldier, the other Valkyries were Road Rage, a red and black femme who was the team's resident diplomat and advisor; Flareup, the red and orange explosives expert with an obsession for all things that go boom; Glyph, a short green femme who was an archaeologist and expert in alien languages; Greenlight, a lime green femme who was the team's communications officer, and Lancer, an orange and blue femme who was an expert pilot. Lifeline wasn't a part of the team, but she was brought along for her advanced medical and scientific knowledge.

"So, on Cybertron, what do I have to look out for?" Gina asked.

"Only microwave radiation beaming down on us from the sun, meteors, charged particle storms, and severely weak infrastructure." Greenlight said as she walked past them into the shuttle. "Nothing we haven't dealt with, really."

Gina whined, but Arcee gave her a calming pat on the back. "Gina, relax. I'll be right by your side. We are will be covering for you. It'll be fine."

Gina nodded, clutching the key card close to her chest. Once the shuttle was loaded, Chromia gave a sharp whistle.

"All right, girls, let's get moving!" Chromia said. "Prime ain't gonna save himself this time."

"You don't have to shout, Chromia. We can hear you." Lancer said as she walked up the landing ramp. "Primus, you sound like a Lupanoid on overcharge."

"One more word from you, Lancer and I'm torching those stupid Abraxan dramas you watch!" Chromia yelled.

Arcee and Gina also boarded the shuttle after saying goodbye to Skyfire. Elita-1 saw them off as well and muttered a prayer for them.

"Till all are one, Autobots." Elita-1 said as she saw the shuttle take off. "Please come back safe."

The shuttle left the docking bay of the battleship and flew off into the sky, slowing shrinking in the dark star laden sky above as it headed toward Cybertron.

XXXXXX

Sitting inside the Athena's cockpit, Gina spun the key card in her hand as she thought of what she had to do. She had no idea how to find Vector Sigma, if it was even possible in the first place, but she had to try. Looking around at the Autobots sitting around her talking with each other, she knew they were placing their faith in her to save their leader. They were willing to risk their lives to make sure she succeeded and got back alive. She wasn't going to misplace their faith in her.

She turned her talos so that it was facing the window and looked outside into the darkness of outer space. The moons grew smaller behind them as the shuttle approached the massive planet of rock and metal that was once home to a magnificent race of biomechanical organisms.

Cybertron, the dead planet.


	6. Light in the Dark part 4

Chapter 6-Light in the Dark part 4

Cybertron, homeworld to a monumental race of mechanical beings known to the rest of the galaxy as the Transformers. It was a crown jewel in the cosmos, a quirk of evolution full of wondrous mysteries. And its inhabitants were every bit as amazing and unique that spawned them.

But now Cybertron was a dead world. Whereas in the past, Cybertron was illuminated by thousands of lights from heavily populated cities, it was now dark and quiet. A husk of what it once was. The towering skyscrapers, the vast Mythril Sea, the once populous city-states that sat on steel continental plates, were now empty and cold, stricken with rust and decay. The landscape sported the scars of was; blast craters, fallen buildings, dried up rivers, scorched lengths of metal that composed the once pristine landscape of the planet's surface. The entire planet was one giant grave, a reminder of what the war had taken from the Cybertronians, and how much was lost.

The shuttle landed in a wide, flat plain that was called the Hydrax Plateau, a region that once served at the planet's primary spaceport for off-world spacecraft going to and from Cybertron. It provided the perfect landing spot for Lancer to set the ship down, and once they were grounded, the ladies got to work in making sure they had everything for the lengthy stay. No one had set food on Cybertron for the last 4 million years, and this marked the first time anyone had done so.

Before leaving, Chromia and the others engaged their magnetic shielded, a precaution to protect them from the solar radiation and ionized particles in the atmosphere, or what's left of it. Cybertron's atmosphere had degraded eons ago, and the planet was awash with harmful radiation and contaminants that were deadly to organics and mechanicals alike. For Gina, she had to be extra careful, for as environmentally sealed her talos was, a shield generator added to her mecha and pilot suit would give some much needed added protection. What could drop a mechanoid in seconds could give her a slow death.

"You do not want to get caught in those solar storms." Firestar said. "They'll wreck your systems like three year old Engex, and drop you in three nano-kliks. The magnetic shielding will protect you from the worst of it, though be sure to take a decontamination bath when we get back to the Avenger."

"Okay." Gina breathed and stayed close to Arcee as the landing hatch opened up.

The team exited the ship and Chromia looked at their pilots. "You two stay here and guard the ship. Keep the comms open in case we need an evac."

"Yes, Ma'am." Lancer grinned and turned to Greenlight with a naughty smile on her lips. "I'll keep me eyes open all right."

Greenlight rolled her eyes. "Oh dear lord."

When Gina took her first steps onto Cybertron's hard surface, she felt as if she were having a dream. She was standing on an alien world, light years from home. She was experiencing something people have only dreamed about for decades and here she was, the first human to step food on an extra-solar world. Granted, Cybertron was a dead world in more than one, no longer able to support life and create new life in the process. The sky was dark, full of storm clouds that crackled with lightning ever few minutes, and she could see the damages caused by explosions, missiles and energy blasts everywhere she looked. In some places, she could even see the rusted remains of fallen Cybertronians, some Autobot, some Decepticon and others unidentified. It was a true warzone, and Gina couldn't believe that the entire planet was like this.

"Arcee, I'm actually standing on another planet! Your home." Gina breathed. "Arcee, I can't…" Her enthusiasm faded when she looked at Arcee and saw her expression.

Arcee's face was ridden with sadness and regret, her blue eyes scanning the desolate landscape with a weary gaze. "This…wasn't how I wanted you to see my home, Gina."

"Arcee…" Gina frowned and looked away. "I'm sorry."

"In the fog of war, it's hard to really focus on the long term effects it has on the planet. We were so focused on winning the next battle and keeping the enemy at bay, that we ignored the warnings and let the world suffer a slow, agonizing death." Arcee muttered with a sigh. "In the end, it took an apocalyptic battle against a being that dealt Cybertron the final blow and drove us off the planet."

"A being? Who could cause this much damage?" Gina asked. She shivered when Chromia's expression darkened.

"Thunderwing."

Gina knew better than to ask who Thunderwing was when it garnered a reaction like that, so she kept her mouth shut. Thankfully, Firestar changed the subject back to their mission.

"So how do we find Vector Sigma?" She asked. "I know it traveled throughout the planet's underground network, but I don't fancy going hiking through Insecticon-ridden caves."

Chromia shrugged and looked down at the talos next to her. "I don't suppose that key of yours has a way of tracking the big V, does it?"

"I wish I knew…" Gina muttered, holding up the key. She gasped when the key began to glow, lighting up her cockpit. Waving it around a bit, she saw that its glow brightened or dimmed depending on which direction she was pointing it. "I think it does know the way."

"What is it, Gina?" Arcee asked.

Gina held the key to the east, into the expanse away from the plateau. "The key glows when I point it over there."

"That's in the direction of Nyon." Road Rage said. She groaned and shook her heads. "Looks like I'm heading back home."

"We better get going before our time runs out. Our shields can only protect us from so much radiation before we reach our limit." Chromia said and transformed with the rest of her team into their vehicle modes. Being the first time she'd seen Autobots in their natural cybertronian alt modes, Gina noted how they looked like futuristic versions of terran vehicles. "Road Rage, before you transform, I'm obligated to warn you that if you rear end me one more time…"

"It was a mistake!"

"One that you do multiple times!" Flareup, who transformed into a cybertronian motorbike, yelled. "You scuffed up my tires the last time we went on recon together!"

"What are they talking about?" Gina asked Firestar.

"Road Rage is usually a sweet femme, but when she transforms, she turns into a literal speed demon that acts like a maniac on the road. In her vehicle mode, she develops some split personality with a potty mouth and bad temper, hence her name." Firestar said. "You should hear some of the things she says. Some of her insults would make even Megatron cry."

"It's a medical condition!" Road Rage screamed.

XXXXXX

"Oh? What's this?"

The curious little inquiry came from a young femme who was colored a bold ultramarine and black, with unusual golden-orange powerlines traversing her torso, upper arms and thighs. Her head was round and tear-dropped shaped, similar in style to a terran motorcycle helmet, with a glossy black visor covering her face. Feint, the on-off assistant of Shockwave, sat up in her chair as she focused her attention on the computer in front of her.

She was spending her long days in her home inside her home, an underground laboratory sitting far under the surface of Cybertron's largest moon, Epistemus. It was Shockwave's private laboratory, where he could safely continue his experiments and ponder in solitude without having to worry about any interruptions to his work. As his personal assistant, it was Feint's job to make sure the place stayed tidy and any pets/prisoners were secure in their cages. She didn't mind being housekeeper for a few months, Shockwave was busy mech who catered to Megatron's whims. These days, he often spent most of his time at Decepticon HQ, on the planet Charr. She was happy to lighten his workload, even though he'd never thank her, but it was lonely here and her only companions were those annoying Insecticon alphas that Shockwave experimented on.

"Looks like we've got some intruders planetside. That's a surprise." Feint muttered. Autobots and Decepticons had an unspoken rule to leave Cybertron alone, and no one, not even Shockwave, had stepped foot on the planet since the global exodus. She tapped into the hidden satellites in orbit and read out the information. "Let's see; an Autobot spacecraft harboring eight Autobots and one…unknown? Oh, this is very interesting."

As she tried to maneuver the satellites for a closer look, a clawed hand reached out and settled onto her shoulder, making her jump.

"What the frag?" Feint spun around and scowled at the unannounced visitor. Her eyes widened behind her mask as she saw who it was.

"What do we have here?" A scratchy voice hummed, sounding hoarse like metal sheets grinding together. "Feint, you should've told me that we have visitors. We didn't even have time to roll out the welcome mat."

"I didn't want to disturb your beauty sleep." Feint said. She winced as the claws dug into her shoulder, lightly cutting into her armor.

"Nonsense, I always have time for visitors." The femme with the ghoulish voice leaned in toward the screen and gasped. "Is that…Arcee? And she's brought an alien for me to play with! This is a truly fruitful day indeed!"

Feint grimaced as the femme laughed, gnashing her teeth together as her eyes shined with glee and anticipation. She hated this psycho so much. "Should we do something about these guys? The Autobots haven't touched down on Cybertron since The Fall, and I doubt this is a social visit."

"We'll get to that eventually, but first we need to see what they're up to first. I'm sure the legendary Valkyries wouldn't break protocol to land on Cybertron without good reason." The ash grey femme rubbed her sharp fingers together eagerly. "The others we'll kill off but Arcee is mine!"

Ashling, Decepticon scientist, metaphysicist and master surgeon, snapped her fingers. At her command, the sound of skittering legs and the clang of mandibles filled the room as large insects swarmed her. Her lipless mouth slid upward in a demonic grin as her sharp, rusty teeth glinted in the purple light. "Come my pets, we're off to see our old friends!"

XXXXXX

The journey to Nyon was quiet and tense. The Valkyries and Arcee followed Gina as the girl flew through the air in her talos, now acting as their guide with the glowing key card leading the way.

When the initial rush of being on an alien planet wore off, Gina was finally hit with the reality that this planet was once full of life and had a civilization, but was now completely dead and little more than a corpse. The destruction that she often saw back on Terra in warzones were magnified by a hundred, with nothing but ruins and bodies to see the entire way. What she was looking at was the result of a millennia long war between beings who could not die naturally. It was only made worse by the bombardment of space debris and cosmic radiation that did more damage to the unprotected planet.

Nyon was a slum that was a shadow of its former self long before the war was even a thought in people's minds. Four million years later and the city was little more than a large pile of rubble that hadn't been touched except by artillery shells and orbital strikes.

"Nyon was a hellhole back when the Decepticons were still small enough to be considered terrorists. It was a slum where social outcasts, criminals and people who didn't belong anywhere else were stashed. It wasn't that Nyon descended into this state, rather it was abandoned and left to rot." Firestar said. "Then Zeta Prime, the Prime before Optimus, attacked the city out of nowhere and leveled it. Thousands of people died in a single day."

The more she learned of the cybertronians, the more Gina realized that their past was a dark one that could give plenty of dictators on Terra a run for their money. She couldn't imagine living here before the War, where social disorder was rampant and discrimination was commonplace. And she thought the conflict between humans and espers was messed up.

The team drove through the ruins of Nyon, through the shadows of fallen buildings and monuments that once resembled something of a city. It was dark and even the two moons in the sky barely gave them any light to see with. When the roads started breaking apart, the Autobots went to bipedal mode and continued on foot. Gina led them deeper into the ancient city until they reached the outskirts, where Gina landed her talos in front of a large courtyard with a massive domed building.

"The Acroplex, supposedly the former capital of Cybertron in the time of the Thirteen Primes." Arcee said. "I heard that this was where Optimus raise Metroplex from the ground."

"It is, Ironhide told me himself when he got here." Chromia said and looked at Athena. "This the place, Gina?"

"Yeah." Gina said, keeping the blindingly bright key card to the side to avoid blinding herself. "The key's shining brighter than the sun in here. This is definitely the place."

"All right, ladies, let's set up shop here." Chromia said. "Flareup, set up phase charges along the perimeter. Glyph, send some drones out and take cover in that little alcove over there to snipe any unwanted visitors. Road Rage, Firestar, mount those plasma turrets right along the frontline."

"You expecting company?" Gina asked.

Chromia smirked and charged up her plasma rifle. "You could say that."

"But Cybertron's been abandoned, who could stay here under these conditions?" Arcee wondered.

"The type of vermin often found around these parts." Chromia said and looked out into the city with narrowed eyes. "Shockwave's malformed pets, the Swarm."

" _Chromia,"_ Glyph called out over the comm. _"Two drones just went own on the eastern side. I think we're about to have some company."_

"I wasn't expecting them to sense us so fast." Chromia growled. She heard buzzing in the air and saw a large black cloud rise above the city skyline. It was a swarm of Insecticons. "Slag! Everyone, weapons ready and fire at will!"

The swarm consisted of beetle-like soldiers that flew through the city like a swarm of locusts and a ground force of red ant-like Insecticons warriors that were nearly as large as Bulkhead. The Insecticons were subterranean creatures that once lived deep underground and only surfaced to hunt down anyone unlucky enough to wander to close to their hives. It wasn't until the war that they started surfacing in droves to conquer the surface dwellers that drove them underground in the first place. The Insecticons were largely beholden to the commands of their alphas, who were in turn under Shockwave's command.

As soon as they got within range, Flareup pressed the detonator and the phase charges set along the buildings in front of the Acroplex exploded in towering pillars of flames, killing hundreds of Insecticons in a single moment and wounding just as many. The ground units were crushed by falling debris, but a decent number still made it through the inferno and charged the building in their beast modes.

"Light them up, Flareup!" Firestar yelled.

Flareup's eyes lit up in glee as she pressed another button to detonate the second row of charges she planted. "And they all go boom!"

Another ring of explosions went up around the Acroplex. More Insecticons were destroyed, blown apart and incinerated, but many survived and escaped the flames. Arcee was about to join the battle, but Chromia pushed her back.

"We need to get this operation done as soon as possible. The charges will only hold them back for a little while before their alphas come. Road Rage, Firestar, man those turrets! "

Gina watched Firestar and Road Rage activate the plasma turrets and unleash a storm of hot plasma bursts on the Insecticons while Chromia directed her teammates. She wished them luck before following Arcee into the building to find what they came for. However, they failed to notice the shadow watching them from afar.

XXXXXX

Ashling stood with the Insecticon alphas Sharpshot and Hardshell, two veteran warriors who introduced Megatron to the Swarm ages ago in the Sea of Rust. Sharpshot was a tall, lithe femme with dark purple armor who transformed into a cybertronian insect similar to a grasshopper with two powerful hind legs that could vaporize stone and metal with a single, fully charged kick. Hardshell was taller and bulkier, built like a soldier but sported black and olive green armor.

"Well?" Ashling demanded.

"It's them." Sharpshot sniffed. "The Autobots. They're all in the Acroplex, but I cannot see the alien."

Ashling narrowed her eyes and looked forward. "Have your swarms press the attack. I want to tire the Autobots out before I go in for the kill."

"Yes, Ashling." Hardshell said.

Ashling's fingers slid together and made sparks in anticipation. She couldn't wait to see Arcee again. 'We've spent far too long apart.'

XXXXXX

Somehow, despite the natural disasters ravaging the planet, the dome was still mostly intact, and various carvings were found on the walls, though most of them were incomprehensible at this point. The deeper they went, the older the building got, until they entered a massive atrium that had a large blue carving of the Matrix on the wall.

'Hard to believe Rodimus did all this. I never pegged him for an artist.' Arcee thought, looking at the art. "Gina, where do we go now?"

Gina held up the key, but it wasn't glowing anymore. She waved it around, but it did nothing. "Um…it's not glowing, Arcee. My jimmies are getting rustled!"

"Calm down, Gina, we're still on a lead. Let's…" The building shook and more explosions were heard outside. Arcee called Chromia. "Chromia, what's going on out there?"

" _More Insecticons, and they're being led by alphas!"_ Chromia yelled. The sounds of guns and cannons being fired could be heard in the background. _"Make it snappy, girl. We're running out of time here!"_

Gina bit her lip so hard it started to bleed. She couldn't think of anything to do right now, and the explosions and rattling wasn't making it easier for her to remain calm. Hands shaking, she held the key close to her face and clutched it tightly.

"Please, show me where to go. I know I'm close, but you have to help me." She prayed. "I have friends and family counting on me to make this work. Don't let me fail now. Not when I have a change to help them."

When the key still didn't glow, Gina felt tears threatening to fall. Before the hopelessness could set in, she felt a mental tug in her head and blinked her watery eyes. It was only then that she noticed her talos was shaking. "A-Arcee?!"

"Gina!" Arcee ran to Gina as the Athena began to glow, but before she could reach her, a pillar of light cut her off. She lost sight of the talos in the light, and when it vanished, Gina was completely gone. "No!"

There were no scorch marks, which meant that the beam wasn't dangerous. Arcee knew this was some kind of teleportation, though it was different from previous forms of teleportation she encountered. Where the hell was Gina taken to?

There was another explosion outside in the courtyard and Arcee looked to the doorway as smoke filed in. "Chromia, how are things out there?"

" _Not good and not bad. They've got the entire area surrounded, but we're beating them back. But Glyph just reported that she spotted the Insecticon alphas Sharpshot and Hardshell in the center of the swarm with another femme."_

"Who?"

A deafening shriek pierced the silence as the roof above her was destroyed and a black figure fell upon her. Arcee jumped aside and drew her blaster as the femme landed on the ground and scowled at her new opponent.

"Ashling." Arcee growled. The demented femme got to her feet, snapping her joints back into place with sickening pops and rolled her neck. She barely looked fazed from falling from such a great height.

Ashling looked just as ghoulish and decrepit as she was in that prison cell five million years ago. Her dirty grey armor was scarred and worn, with patches of armor missing and exposing her inner circuitry. Her six arms ended in razor tipped hands and her face sported that same permanent smirk that gave Arcee nightmares for so many years; a grinning lipless mouth of teeth that looked more like broken knives. Her eyes lacked optic lens, revealing her optic sensors underneath, glowing bright orange and showing her madness.

"Arcee, my little test subject." Ashling grinned. "It's been so long since we saw each other. I'm sorry we couldn't meet sooner, working with Shockwave takes up one's personal time. But here we are, with other playmates for my pets to play with. Primus certainly must be smiling on me today."

"Primus turned his face from our people ages ago." Arcee said. "What are you doing here?"

"A team of Autobots, the Valkyries of all people, arrive in Cybertron's orbit without notice and you ask me why I'm here? Like it or not, I'm a Decepticon, deary. I have a job to do, a reputation to uphold among those mindless savages I serve with." Ashling looked around the chamber. "I don't see the alien here. Where is it?"

"Far from you." Arcee growled.

Ashling frowned, her fingers grinding together at a more rapid pace. "You should know that I don't like being lied to. Where is the alien?"

"Go to hell!" Arcee leapt forward at Ashling, who also ran at her. Whatever happened today, she had to give Gina as much time as possible. They had to finish this mission no matter what!

XXXXXX

It took Gina a minute to realize that she was still alive. She didn't know what happened, but she wasn't vaporized on the spot, thank heavens, though she had no idea where she was. Rotating Athena's head, she saw that she was standing in the middle of a cave, one mostly composed of metallic ore found in great abundance and would make human miners froth at the sight alone.

"Arcee, do you read me?" Gina tried calling Arcee, but couldn't get an answer, only static. She checked her signal and saw that she wasn't anywhere near Arcee for proper communication. "Out of range? Where am I?"

The key in her hand glowed a little and she felt something wash over her mind, like a signal. Her brain interpreted this strange signal through electrical impulses and translated it into something she could understand-words.

 _Gina._

"Who…?" She whispered.

Seeing one tunnel as her only exit, she walked forward down a sloping tunnel. The key card began giving that same, maddening high pitched shriek that almost drove her mad last time, but at a lower volume. She had no idea where she was going, but she knew that she was going in the right direction somehow.

After five minutes, she reached the entrance to a massive cavern that was probably three football fields long. When she followed the bright light at the end of the tunnel, her eyes widened. She thought she was staring at the sun, but it was something else, something just as important.

"Vector Sigma?"

XXXXXX

"So…did they say how long they'll be gone?" Roadstorm asked.

"No, they didn't." Prowl said.

"Oh. Just asking, that's all." Roadstorm shrugged. "I mean, they've been gone a really long time and-"

"Roadstorm, please don't start right now." Bulkhead groaned.

A few hours had passed since Arcee, Skyfire and Gina went to Cybertron. They were relieved after getting a call from Elita-1 that their friends had made it to Cybertron's moon relatively safely and were on their way to Cybertron, but that was all the news they would get until further notice. Whether the group succeeded or failed was up to them.

As for Team Prime, they were keeping a tight watch over the Stargate, doing routine shifts to guard the site and monitor the site for any activities. So far, no one came to rain on their parade, but everyone, especially Prowl, knew it was only a matter of time before they were discovered. The children were at home trying to live their normal lives knowing that Gina was light years away in danger with only a small team to help her if possible. The tension was driving everyone crazy and it wasn't doing their moods any favors.

"Hey, Jazz, can we get some calming tunes over here?" Roadstorm asked, but a stern glare from Prowl made him freeze.

"Do that and I'm tossing you both into the brig." Prowl threatened, though Jazz just grinned at him.

"Come on, Prowler, we could use something to ease our worries." He said.

"He's right." Bulkhead agreed. "All this waiting is getting me antsy. I need something else to focus on."

"I vote laser Ping-Pong. I've always wanted to try out my new VR system." Wheeljack said.

"No one's doing anything other than standing here to guard this damn Stargate!" Ironhide yelled at his friends. "We're not screwing around while our comrades are on Cybertron fighting for Prime!"

"Ironhide's right. I know you're all on edge, but we need to focus." Prowl said. "For all we know, Arcee, Skyfire and Gina already found a cure for Prime and are already on their way back. The possibility of them finding the cure or failing are 50/50 each, so we shouldn't waste our time worrying."

"Says the real robot on the stage." Roadstorm muttered. Jazz nudged him with his foot to be nice.

Ironhide snorted and looked at the sky, where he saw a group of black shapes heading toward their position. "Slag, we've got incoming!"

The Autobots immediately went into battle mode and drew their weapons, forming a circle around the Stargate. Nightshade's dark form appeared first, transforming to bipedal mode and landing on the ground. The Seekers also transformed and landed in a ring around the Autobots. Behind Nightshade a ground bridge opened up and the Decepticons filed out, along with Optimus and Megatron.

Prowl cursed silently as he took in Prime's new appearance. His armor looked black enough to absorb light and his eyes were like twin pools of blood. Prowl thought he saw thick heat waves emanating off Prime's body, and faint wisps rising off his arms every time he moved. The infection was getting worse and Optimus barely looked recognizable anymore.

"So this is what you're using the Stargate for," Megatron growled. "To call for help. If you think calling for the likes of Ultra Magnus or Elita-1 to save you will change anything, then you're stupider than I give you credit for."

"I don't think I need to tell you how this will go, Autobots." Optimus said, his tone menacing. "Surrender or die. Your choice."

"We hold this Stargate at all costs! For our comrades!" Prowl roared and fired his plasma rifle. "Autobots, attack!"

XXXXXX

Chromia took point in repelling the invading Insecticons. Armed with a custom made laser cannon, she blasted apart any Insecticon soldier that came her way while cutting others down with her broad axe. Next to her, Firestar was armed with dual heat cannons attached to a backpack unit that she used with great efficiency. They stood back to back unleashing heavy weapons fire on the Insecticons and killed countless numbers of them with great ease, though they weren't the only ones putting in the work.

Glyph sniped a few bugs from her hidden position with a photon rifle equipped with a laser targeting sight that made aiming easier for her. Flareup danced through the battlefield tossing out grenades and explosive stick bombs that dealt incendiary damage to the massive savages. Melted body parts were often left in her wake as she laid down some serious firepower befitting of her teacher, Firestar.

Road Rage harbored two titanium saws built into her arms that were sharp enough to cut through Insecticon armor, even their armored carapaces. Suddenly a back and purple bruiser rammed into her and knocked her down. It charged at her, claws raised, when its head exploded in a burst of sparks and energon. Chromia ran over to her and helped her up.

"You okay?" Chromia asked.

"Yeah, just dazed." Road Rage panted and beheaded another drone that came at them. "There's so many of them. How were they able to even live here with all the radiation storms?"

"They're vermin, they've probably evolved that way." Chromia said. "Glyph, status report!"

" _We're steadily taking down their numbers, but there's still more coming from the northeast quadrant of the city. I think they're planning to wear us down through attrition."_

It was a rudimentary but effective tactic. In the grand scheme of things, Insecticons were the perfect disposable soldier. They reproduced faster than normal Cybertronians and could easily replace their numbers. Their loyalty to their alphas also enabled them to follow even suicidal orders to the letter. The Valkyries' weapons and munitions would last about an hour or so before they were in danger of running out. And that wasn't counting the environmental hazards.

"If we stay out here any longer, our shields will start to fail and we'll be exposed to the radiation and particle discharges." Road Rage said.

"We need to hold this position as long as possible." Firestar said. "Flareup, got anymore phase charges."

"Only shape charges, and they aren't that useful unless you plant them on something." Flareup frowned. "I used up the phase charges in the initial wave."

"It's okay, Flareup. I guess we weren't expecting an attack this soon into the mission." Firestar looked up and saw more Insecticons flying towards them. "Heads up! We got more incoming!"

The Valkyries opened fire on the approaching swarm. Chromia reached into her back compartment and pulled out just what she needed-one last phase charge. Running forward, she chucked the bomb at the swarm and detonated it. The explosion took out the weak supports of a nearby building, making it topple over and collapse on top of the Insecticons, crushing several underneath. Firestar was about to thank Chromia when she saw something jump out of the flames.

"Look out!"

It was Sharpshot, in her insectoid alt mode. She leapt the great distance between her and the Autobots before landing on the ground. Pushing herself off the ground, she lunged at Chromia and angled her legs in front of her. Chromia knew what she was planning and titled her body to avoid the kick, spinning around to grab her wings and throw her to the ground. She kicked Sharpshot in the face and got a shot off in her underside before Sharpshot leapt away.

"Get off our turf!" Road Rage yelled.

"Chromia, are you alright?" Flareup asked.

"Yeah. That glitch caught me by surprise." Chromia grunted.

"Chromia, we won't last long out here under this heavy assault. Our munitions will last a little while longer, but if our shields start to fail, we'll have to leave." Road Rage said. "I know you want to stay and fight, but once our rad shields hit the red zone, we'll have to retreat or risk permanent damage."

Chromia sighed. She knew Road Rage was right, but it wasn't her call to make whether they should run or stay. "You make a hard argument, RR, but we're staying put. The reason we're on this dead rock is because we're trying to save Prime. We run from this now and we'll never get another chance like this again. Please girls, just hold out a little longer. For Elita-1."

The femmes glanced at each other and nodded.

"We're with you, blue." Firestar smiled.

"That's right, I almost forgot about what this means for Elita-1." Road Rage said.

"Now that that's said and done, let's go make some boom!" Flareup chirped and ran back into battle with Road Rage.

Chromia and Firestar shared a smile as they followed their comrades into the fray, their fighting spirit reinvigorating their drive to help both Optimus and Elita-1.

XXXXXX

The battle between Arcee and Ashling was fierce. Ashling's defense was strong, using her six arms to block Arcee's sword strikes, her armor surprisingly durable. She weaved through the Autobot's attacks and slashed her claws at Arcee's chest, leaving behind three shallow cuts in her armor. Arcee jumped back and spun around, almost cutting Ashling across the face.

"You've gotten better. Has your little vacation enhanced your skills? No, perhaps it's something else." Ashling giggled.

"Shut up and fight!" Arcee hissed.

"Arcee, we haven't seen each other in so long. What's the harm in a little chat?"

Ashling's main arms converted into blasters and fired a volley of plasma blasts that forced Arcee back. Arcee quickly retreated back behind a pillar and took out her pistols. Ashling pressed her advance and Arcee rushed out of cover to shoot back at her. They traded blaster fire for a few minutes before Ashling's blasts destroyed one of the supports, causing a pillar to collapse over Arcee.

Arcee jumped forward to dodge the falling debris, but Ashling lunged at her and thrust her upper arms forward. One clawed hand managed to pierce Arcee's shoulder and she fell back as the maniacal scientist continued her relentless pursuit.

"You're mine, Arcee!" Ashling cackled, slashing at the Autobot femme without pause. "MINE!"

As Ashling chased Arcee around, something unexpected happened. The left side of Ashling's face exploded in flames and she stumbled to the side, a chunk of her cheek blown off by something. Ashling snarled in pained anger and looked around, only to have another bullet shatter the elbow of her third left arm.

"Who did that?!" She growled and looked around at the chamber. "Show yourself, coward! Before I tear this precious Autobot apart!"

"You won't do a damn thing, cog sucker!"

Another person entered the battle, jumping down from the upper scaffolding of the chamber to land on the ground in front of Arcee. It was another femme, who had cyan and chrome armor and a lithe build with wheels on her shoulders and legs. She carried a high tech sniper rifle in her hands that she had pointed at Ashling. What struck Arcee was the familiar face she thought she would never see again.

"Moonracer?" Arcee gasped.

Arcee's younger sister, Moonracer, glanced back at her and grinned. "Hey, big sis. Sorry I'm late."

XXXXXX

Gina didn't know what to expect when she'd finally see Vector Sigma. Ratchet described it as a supercomputer, though even he wasn't so sure about that, so she came to Cybertron expecting to see some ancient computer hooked up to some incomprehensible power source of some kind. Boy was she wrong.

Vector Sigma was a massive, glowing faceted orb that floated in place deep underground, far from Cybertron's surface. It hung in place, glowing dark red, which seemed…somehow wrong to Gina. It looked like it was bleeding. Still, even from inside her talos, Gina could feel the intense pressure it was exerting; it was so large it gave off its own gravitational force! How she was able to move when standing so close to it was anyone's guess, but that was the last thing on Gina's mind.

The key was still glowing in her hand and Gina knew she'd have to present it to Vector Sigma herself. Taking a deep breath, she opened her cockpit and climbed out, holding the key to the giant orb. Not a second passed before the key was yanked out of her hand and flew into the glassy surface of Vector Sigma. It vanished into the orb and suddenly Vector Sigma started shining spotlights that roamed all over the chamber.

"Jinkies, I think I did something bad." Gina whimpered. "Did I set off some defense system? I thought I got over that phase!"

She was about to jump back into her cockpit when one of the searchlights fell on her. She froze and looked up at the bright light, expecting to be vaporized on the spot or something. Instead, she felt a wave of calm wash over her. Vector Sigma emitted its frequency and Gina climbed back out of her talos, landing on the ground and slowly walking towards the orb. The closer she got, the brighter Vector Sigma became, and the ugly red color it had slowly turned to bluish-white.

Gina only took a couple of steps towards the edge of the chamber before the light lifted her off her feet. Taken into the air by an invisible force, Vector Sigma slowly started looking like a blue star with white flames flickering around it. Gina's eyes slid closed as her body was engulfed by those very same flames and she was absorbed into Vector Sigma. It was a pleasant experience and the world around her turned white as she was greeted by a pleasant warmth. Then…nothing.

XXXXXX

Arcee stared at her sister, who was standing before her alive and well, looking no different from that time stellar cycles ago. The same appearance, the same voice, and the same bright look in her eye…it was all there. Arcee would've been frozen in place if it wasn't for Ashling giving an enraged snarl and lunging at them.

Moonracer fired a shot that took out a piece of Ashling's shoulder, though the femme hardly cared as she went to kill the newcomer. Arcee was about to intervene, but to her surprise, Moonracer spun around and attacked with ferocity of her own. Her sniper rifle actually transformed, shifting into a long, sharp spear that left a deep gash in Ashling's chest and forced her back.

"You glitch!" Ashling snarled.

"Stay away from my sister!" Moonracer said.

"Moonracer, stay back!" Arcee said, stepping forward. "She's mine to fight."

"No, this is my fight too!" Moonracer said stubbornly. "I'm not letting this freak get you!"

"How touching. The walking corpse has a heart." Ashling sneered. She charged at the sisters and slashed at them, forcing them apart.

Arcee and Moonracer attacked her at the same time. Ashling deflected their attacks as much as she could, but Moonracer's skill with the spear was rather uncanny, just like her sister. She focused on Arcee too much, which allowed Moonracer to get a hit in, severing one of her upper arms. Ashling howled and fired her blaster at Moonracer, catching her in the shoulder before spinning around to kicked Arcee in the face.

Moonracer growled and shift her spear into its rifle mode, taking aim and shooting a quick plasma blast into Ashling's chest to stun her before transforming her spear again and slashing downward on the Con's side, severing the other two of Ashling's left arms in a single strike.

Ashling howled painfully and fell to her knees, holding her hands to her bleeding stumps. "You little bastard! I'll finish what Flamewar was too weak to do!"

Before the fight could continue, a large pillar of light emerged behind them. Surprised, Ashling looked behind her and saw the Athena walking out of the light, wondering where the talos had come from…before she was hit in the chest by a blast from Athena's pulse cannons. That one shot was enough to blast apart Ashling's already damaged left side and she was blown back into the wall, crashing through it and disappearing under a pile of rubble.

Moonracer pointed her rifle at Athena, but Arcee pushed her arm down. "Wait, she's a friend!"

Arcee looked at the Athena, which was bathed in white flames, glowing like a star. Its eyes were glowing white and its movements were a lot more fluid and focused than mechanical. What was more worrying was that Gina hadn't answered her at all.

"Gina," Arcee said softly. "Gina, are you alright?"

She didn't get any reply. Instead, the Athena hovered off the ground and emitted a burst of sol particles as it flew out of the chamber.

"Um…what was that?" Moonracer asked. There were a lot of things going on that she didn't know about. "What's going on?"

"I'll explain everything to you on the ride home. And we're also going to have a talk of our own." Arcee looked at her sister and took her hand. "Let's go, Moon."

Moonracer smiled at her sister's nickname for her and followed her out of the chamber.

XXXXXX

Sharpshot charged at Chromia and Firestar. Using her powerful legs to propel herself forward, Sharpshot easily dodged most of their shots and channeled electricity through her arms. She shot two bolts at the Autobots, which they dodged. Chromia took out her energo-axe and rushed at Shrapnel, swinging her weapon at her head. Sharpshot ducked under her axe and spin-kicked her in the side.

"Do not falter!" Sharpshot bellowed, her voice carrying over the swarm. "Burn them! Rend their mesh! We'll devour their innards as a victory feast!"

"You're a sick little puppy, aren't ya?" Chromia remarked.

Meanwhile, Road Rage and Flareup had their hands full with Hardshell, who was a walking tank on legs as he weathered through their attacks and fought like an animal. Their blaster bolts hit his armor with little damage and his sweeping strikes hit hard. Road Rage was already favoring a wound on her right arm after he landed a hit on her and was forced to fight him in close quarters combat, which was dangerous for her.

"I've killed my fair share of Wreckers, little girl!" Hardshell hissed. "Fighting you will be no problem to me."

"I'm no Wrecker, I'm a Valkyrie!" Road Rage growled and ran forward, bring out her saws and slashing at his legs. She managed to slice her saw into his left leg and cut into his lower abdomen as well, earning a pained roar and was kicked in the chest for her efforts.

Hardshell grabbed one of her arms and threw her into the ground before squeezing the limb as hard as he could. Road Rage groaned as she felt her armor falter under his tremendous strength and tried to get free. Hardshell prepared to tear her arm off when Flareup jumped on his back and planted two shape chargers before jumping off. They detonated and Hardshell's back was engulfed in flames. He lost his grip on Road Rage and Flareup pulled her away.

"I'm okay. Just a mesh wound." Road Rage grunted. "Thanks, Flareup."

Firestar slammed into the ground from a lightning bolt that hit her in the chest. Chromia dodged another bolt, but Sharpshot lunged at her and kicked her in the chest, sending her flying back almost two feet before smashing into a fallen statue. She coughed and got to her knees, wincing painfully.

"Firestar! Girl, answer me, are you alright?" She rasped.

"Yeah…yeah, I'm still alive." Firestar groaned, hissing at the burn on her chest plate. "Alright is another story."

Chromia stood up and raised her axe and shield, ready to fight again. There was still a sizable chunk of Insecticons in the area and she was already starting to wear down. If things didn't start turning around soon, they'll either be overrun by the bugs or die slowly from the cosmic radiation.

At that moment, the Athena appeared, bursting from the dome and flying into the air. Everyone looked at the alien mecha as it flew over the area, large bursts of sol particles shooting from its frame. Pointing its beam cannon at the swarm, it fired a blast into the heart of the invading swarm. The blast destroyed a large section of Insecticons and Athena fired another blast at the ground that scattered the swarm again. Dozens of Insecticons were killed in the barrage and the Insecticons began to scatter.

"Where are you going? Stand and fight!" Sharpshot screamed. But it was too late; the natural fight or flight instincts of the Insecticons had kicked in, and in the face of this powerful enemy who was killing them so easily, flight was the best option at the moment.

Not even the alphas could anchor them in place and to Hardshell's horror, the swarm even began to split apart. "I didn't come all this way just to be chased off by an alien!" He growled.

He transformed into his insect mode and flew up toward Athena. Turning his long horn into a laser cannon, Hardshell fired a blast at Athena. To his surprise, the talos spun around, completely dodging the blast before pointing the barrel of its beam cannon at Hardshell and shooting a blast of its own. He was hit right in the face, blasting it apart and blasting him back to the ground with a crash.

"Hardshell!" Sharpshot was stunned. How could he go down in one shot? He was among their strongest warriors!

"I'd leave if I were you." Chromia said, still holding her weapons at the ready.

Sharpshot glared at her before collapsing into her beast mode and letting out a shrill cry. The remaining Insecticons all gathered around her as she leapt away, ordering two soldiers to carry Hardshell's body away. Neither alpha made an attempt to retrieve Ashling's body.

"Holy slag." Firestar breathed, looking at the Athena as it slowly landed on the ground. "That was some firepower you were packing, kid."

"Gina!"

Arcee and Moonracer came running out of the citadel, surprising the other Autobots as they saw the newcomer who was totally supposed to be dead.

"Moonracer?" Chromia blinked. "But how…?"

"I'll totally explain later, when we're not in a post-apocalyptic death world." Moonracer said. "But it's nice to finally meet you all!"

Arcee approached the Athena, in stood in place. Its flaming aura slowly faded away and its eyes returned to normal, though Arcee was more concerned about its pilot.

"Gina, are you okay?" She asked again.

It took a minute, but to Arcee's relief, she heard Gina's shaky voice answer through the speakers. "I…I'm fine. I'm okay."

"Thank Primus." Arcee sighed. Though she wondered what had the girl sounding so spooked.

"Gina, do you have it?" Glyph asked eagerly. "Please tell me you have the key."

The Athena's hand lifted and held up the key card, which was glowing and charged with energy channeled from Vector Sigma.

"Atta girl!" Firestar grinned.

"She actually did it!" Road Rage cheered.

"That's awesome!" Moonracer said. Then she asked, "What did she do?"

"I always knew she could do it." Arcee said proudly. "Humans are a hardy bunch."

Chromia patted Athena's shoulder and turned to her team. "Let's save the celebrations until we're back on Solomus, ladies. Right now, let's transform and get the hell out of here before we awaken a swarm of giant beetles or something."

XXXXXX

At Stonehenge, the Autobots and Decepticons were once again locked in a standoff, weapons pointed at each other, but no one dared to fire a shot without orders from their commanders. Prowl got flashbacks to the battle for the D-11 container and hoped this battle didn't turn out like that one. The last thing he wanted was to fight with the Stargate in the line of fire. Without it, Arcee, Gina and Skyfire won't be able to get back in time.

"I'm not going to tell you again, Autobots," Optimus growled. "Surrender or die!"

"We heard you the first time, Prime. And our answer is still the same." Prow said. "We're not doing either."

Flamewar's eyes roved over the Autobots and noticed that they were missing two of their number. "Arcee and that fly girl are missing. Where are they?"

"Where else? They're the ones that went through the Stargate." Nightshade said.

"Who cares? I'll get my answers one way or another!" Megatron said and raised his fusion cannon. "Decepti-"

"Wait, Megatron." Optimus placed a hand on the warlord's shoulder to stop him. "There's another matter we should attend to before we finish them off."

Megatron glanced back at Prime with an impatient look. "And what would that be?"

"This."

Optimus slammed his fist into Megatron's face and knocked him into one of the stone pillars. Nightshade, surprised and outraged, moved to attack, but Megatron held up a hand to stop her. Wiping energon from a cut in his cheek, Megatron smirked and stood up.

"So you finally made your move." Megatron said. "I must admit, I expected you to rebel a lot sooner."

"I like to plan an entrance before making an appearance." Optimus said and rolled his shoulders. "I plan on killing you in full view of enemies and allies alike, Megatron. And when I'm finished carving your corpse into a new weapon for me, I'll move on to make this planet the seat of my new dynasty!"

"One step at a time, Prime!"

Megatron fired a blast from his fusion cannon, but Optimus ducked under the beam and ran at him with his battle axe drawn. Megatron brought out his arm blade and parried Optimus. The two leaders fought with great ferocity, and no one dared to intervene. They were equal in size and strength, but no one noticed the little gift Optimus left hidden in Megatron's shoulder joint.

XXXXXX

Elita-1 bit her lip as she waited anxiously for the return of the Valkyries and their visitors. She desperately wanted to go along with them to save Optimus, but she needed to remain behind and keep an eye on the situation on the field. So far, no news had been leaked about Prime's condition and she wanted to keep it that way. The war would be lost if the greater Autobot army learned of this.

"You will wear a hole into the floor if you keep pacing like that." Perceptor said as he entered her office.

"Perceptor," She addressed him as she looked away from the window. "How goes the operation on Skyfire?"

"It's going smoothly. We're taking a break now, but it shouldn't be too long before I've finished modifying her transwarp drive." Perceptor said.

"Will she be able to get them back to Terra?"

"With a sufficient power supply aiding her, yes it's possible. However she will only be able to teleport small distances within line of sight just like Skywarp. The transwarp drive was only supposed to theoretically traverse interstellar distances." He said. "I'm glad that she at least got it right the first time. I don't think I could've done this again if she actually died from the attempt."

"That's the cons of being a scientist, Perceptor. Sometimes, trial and error are risks in their own right." Elita-1 said.

"Very true." He nodded.

The intercom on her desk switched on as the Autobot Dogfight's voice announced some good news. "Sir, we just got word from the Valkyries. They're returning to base right now."

"I'm on my way." She smiled and Perceptor and they both made their way to the docking bay where the shuttle was already landing.

When the landing hatch finally opened, the Valkyries disembarked from the ship, with Arcee and Gina leading the way. Elita-1 smiled at them and walked up the ramp to meet them halfway.

"I'm happy you all made it back safely." Elita-1 said. "Do you have the key, little one?"

Gina smiled and held up the key card, which was still glowing. Elita-1 couldn't have felt more proud than she did at that moment. It was still amazing that this girl, a human, was able to really get near Vector Sigma. This truly was a miracle, though the girl looked like she had been through a lot.

"Come over to the medibay with us. You've all been through a lot and…" Elita-1 trailed off when she noticed Moonracer's head peeking over Arcee's shoulder. "By the Allspark…Moonracer?"

"H-Hey, commander." Moonracer said. She stumbled back when Elita-1 took her into a big hug. "I missed you too!"

"We have a lot to talk about." Elita-1 said.

XXXXXX

Elita-1 brought Gina, Arcee and the rest of the team to the ship's medibay to heal them after their long and arduous mission. Perceptor still wasn't finished with his modifications to Skyfire's transwarp drive. While waiting, Moonracer explained her story to Arcee and Elita-1.

Moonracer couldn't really remember anything after she was killed by Flamewar. All she remember was darkness, and when she woke up, she was inside some self-contained lab on a recharge slab. It was built as a shelter complete with its own life support system and supplies, though she left the lab after a few weeks and wandered the underground for a long time. She ran into a tribe of stragglers who lived underground to escape the fighting up above and they took her in as one of their own.

"I spent the rest of my time there hunting and harvesting energon from Insecticons still living in the tunnels underground. They were nice people, but I had to find a way off Cybertron or else I'd never get a chance to see you again. I spotted your ship entering orbit and I followed your trail." Moonracer said and smirked. "Lucky me, huh?"

"I don't know how you're still alive, but all that matters is that you're here with me right now." Arcee said and hugged her sister. "And we're together again."

"Yeah, we are." Moonracer sighed happily.

Gina smiled at the scene. She had never seen Arcee look so genuinely happy before. So many things were happening today, it was hard to keep track of it all.

"Moon, this is Gina," Arcee introduced her to Gina. "She's from the planet I'm stationed on."

"Hello there. I've never seen an organic before, but I've heard a lot of stories about 'em." Moonracer smiled down at the girl.

"Some of them good, I hope." Gina said.

"Oh no, all of them bad. Learned quite a few racial slurs from some femmes on the street." Moonracer said and poked Gina in the chest. "But you're totally sweet, so you might be an exception. Thanks for taking care of big sis."

"A-Anytime." Gina chuckled nervously.

It took almost an hour for Perceptor to finish up with Skyfire, mainly because he wanted to make sure everything was in complete working order. In the meantime, Arcee and Gina managed to get some R and R in before they were called back to Perceptor's lab.

"I'm never working with you ever again!" Skyfire yelled at Perceptor. "Honestly, we could've been done an hour ago!"

"Would you rather something go wrong during transwarp and reappearing in a star's orbit?" Perceptor asked blankly.

"It'd be preferable to this!"

On the side, Elita-1 hugged Arcee. "I wish you could've stayed longer, but duty calls. It was good to see you again, Arcee."

"Likewise, Elita." Arcee said. "You've all been a great help to us."

"And you, Gina Harkins," Elita-1 knelt down to the girl. "I want to thank you on behalf of the Autobots for risking your life to save Optimus. You've done so much for our kind at the cost of your personal safety, and as a soldier, there's no possible way I can repay you for that."

"Optimus and the others have done a lot for my planet. I just wanted to return the favor." Gina smiled and held out her hand, allowing Elita-1 to shake it with her finger.

They gathered around Skyfire, who was being hooked up to the Lilac Avenger's generator by Perceptor and Lifeline. This generator would provide the energy required for interstellar travel, while Lifeline managed the targeting computer to get them to their destination.

"The drive should transport you to your original coordinates, though I suggest that you refrain from doing anymore long range teleportation." Perceptor said.

"No arguments from me, Perceptor. I'm prepared to take one for the team!" Skyfire sauntered up to Lifeline. "Though I could be convinced to stay a little longer."

"Just take your friends and go." Lifeline groaned.

"Wait, wait, wait!" Moonracer ran up to them. "I want to come too!"

"No, Moon. Trust me when I say that Terra is too dangerous for an Autobot, even for someone like Optimus. It's not something you want to get involved with." Arcee placed her hands on Moonracer's shoulders and smiled at her. "Knowing that you're here, alive and safe, will put me at ease. Elita-1 and Valkyries will take care of you."

Moonracer pouted, but she smiled a little when Arcee hugged her tightly. Arcee let her sister go and stood back beside Skyfire and Gina. Placing her hands on her partners' shoulders, Skyfire nodded to Perceptor, who activated the generator. Skyfire concentrated on turning her transwarp drive on and space began to distort around them, energy lancing off her body. Just like before, they disappeared in a surge of energy, leaving behind a black scorch mark in the floor.

"That's going to be hard to clean up." Perceptor frowned.

"Do you think they'll make it back in time?" Elita-1 asked Chromia.

"I'd put my money on it." Chromia said, smiling at her fiend. "If they can handle Cybertron, then they can handle whatever that planet throws at them."

"She's right. Arcee's a strong girl, as is that human she came with." Firestar said. "That girl is no joke."

"That's true." Elita-1 smiled. Then she noticed something and looked around the room. "Wait…where's Moonracer?"

XXXXXX

Optimus and Megatron fought for twenty minutes and no one dared to interrupt the fight. It had been a long time since the two leaders had fought so brutally, not since they had their first major battle in Iacon. Optimus and Megatron were both often matched in skill and strength, and they were well versed in each other's fighting styles. This fight was no different, save for Prime's increased aggression.

But something was wrong.

As the fight went on, it became evident that Optimus was always on the defensive, while Megatron pressed the attack for the duration of the battle. It was then people realized that Megatron was moving slower than usual. His movements were slow and uncoordinated, poorly timed counterattacks and his blocks were as strong as they should be. It didn't take long for Megatron to notice this as well.

"What's…happening to me?" Megatron grunted, feeling a bit dizzy.

"That would be my little surprise for you." Optimus chuckled. "Like it?"

"Go to hell!"

Megatron charged at Prime and thrust his blade at his chest. Optimus easily sidestepped the attack and elbowed Megatron's face, the twisted his blade arm behind his back and pulled, driving Megatron to his knees.

"How does it feel, Megatron?" Optimus whispered. "To feel so weak? It reminds you of your stint as a miner on Cybertron, doesn't it? Oh, if Elmeth could see you now. Wouldn't she be ashamed to see you laid so low? I'd say how the might have fallen, but you're not even close to that level."

Megatron roared and ripped his arm out of Prime's grip, ignoring the sound of his arm breaking at the elbow. He swung his fusion cannon towards Optimus' face, intending to blast his head off in a single shot. Unfortunately, he failed to anticipate Prime's plan and the rogue Autobot leader snapped his fingers with an unseen smirk.

BOOM!

To everyone's surprise and horror (on the Decepticons' side) the entire left side of Megatron's body exploded. From his broken left arm to almost the center of his chest was swallowed up by a burst of flames that seemed to blossom from within his body. With most of his spinal strut destroyed, Megatron stumbled a bit before fallen over, already falling into stasis lock.

"I planted a little bug in your body before we started our battle. It absorbs the energy produced by your neural net and stores it. The more you moved, the more energy you expended." Optimus explained, as if Megatron could hear him. "Then it would use that same energy to detonate like a bomb and blast you apart from the inside out. Very well made for a mech with little to no technical experience, yes?"

Hearing the cockiness in Prime's tone, mixed with seeing her leader lying motionless at his feet, had spurred Nightshade into a bestial rage as she gave the command to her team. "KILL HIM!" She howled. "KILL THEM ALL!"

The Decepticons opened fire on the Autobots, who quickly retaliated. Soundwave dutifully retrieved Megatron's body and summoned a ground bridge to Decepticon Island. Optimus went to shoot him down, but Nightshade had already drawn Gandiva and shot an arrow at him. The arrow exploded against Prime's chest, but aside from pushing him back a step, it barely left a mark on his chest.

"I don't know why you're so angry, Nightshade." Optimus laughed. "It's not like he gave a damn about you."

"Shut up and die!"

She shot another arrow at him, but this time he smacked it away, letting it explode far away from him. Nightshade leapt at him and drew her swords, slashing wildly at him. Optimus dodged all her attacks, laughing maniacally all the while. Starscream tried to take him down with a null blast, but Optimus easily avoided his attack and kicked him in the face, knocking out a few denta. Nightshade swung her swords at his head, but he let them slide off his arm and grabbed her head.

"Please, Nightshade, keep trying to kill me." He taunted her. He threw her aside and kicked her in the chest. "You're doing such a great job already."

" _Nightshade, you must retreat."_ Soundwave said to her over the comm.

"Not until I tear out his Spark!" She hissed.

" _Nightshade, Megatron's condition is critical. You are not in the right state of mind to fight Prime."_ Soundwave said. _"Let him and the Autobots annihilate each other for us. Then we will handle the survivors."_

Nightshade gritted her teeth, visibly shaking with rage. She commanded all her forces to retreat to the ground bridge and glared at Optimus. "This isn't over, Prime!"

She followed the Cons into the ground bridge and it vanished, leaving behind Optimus. He slowly turned to the Autobots with a bloodthirsty expression and raised his arms.

"Now…who wants to die first?"

XXXXXX

'This is a nightmare.' Ratchet thought miserably as he heard his team yelling over Teletran's comm channel. He just barely got news of Prime's decimation of Megatron before all the fighting started.

"Ratchet, can't you do something?" Penny asked. "Optimus' is going to kill them!"

"There's nothing I can do. Optimus' condition is getting worse, and I fear that the virus is driving him into a mad rage. Our chances of curing him are dwindling as we speak." Ratchet said, looking helpless. "I can't do anything…"

Just as his words began to sink in, another call came in on another channel. "Ratchet, Teletran-1 just detected a transwarp signal in Nebrask!" Longarm reported.

"What?" Ratchet ran over to the computer and checked the readings. Sure enough, a spatial distortion was detected in Osea. And he also detected three biosignals on the screen.

"Arcee?" He breathed. "Skyfire?"

" _We're here, Ratchet. All three of us."_ Arcee said over the comm. The children and Minicons all cheered at this. Darren and Annie hugged each other, relieved that Gina was alive and back. Ratchet felt the same way, but he had to focus on their unfinished task.

" _We're glad to be back, guys, but we need to get the key to Optimus!"_ Gina said. _"Ratchet…"_

"I know. The others are fighting Optimus as we speak. His condition has gotten worse." Ratchet said. "I'll send you a ground bridge to his position right now."

As ratchet got to work on sending them a bridge, Sparkplug noticed something he missed on the screen. "Um, Ratchet, I'm getting three Autobot signals here. Is this a mistake?"

" _No, Sparkplug, it's not."_ Arcee sighed. _"We had a little…tag along who joined us on the ride home."_

XXXXXX

The Autobots, though more prepared to fight Optimus the second time around, found that their leader was even stronger than before. He fought them all without any sign of tiring and his ferocity grew with each passing minute. His axe moved so fast through the air it looked like an orange blur. Jazz and prowl, who were fighting him alongside Ironhide, sported several cuts and burns, while Ironhide took the brunt of Prime's powerful blows.

Optimus' attitude was growing more erratic as well. His voice turned savage, his movements less refined and more violent, and black wisps leaked off his body like some. The plague had taken hold of his mind and they were powerless to stop it.

"Prime, snap out of it!" Ironhide grunted. He tried to wrestle the axe from Optimus' grip, but couldn't fight Prime's strength. "Stay in control!"

" **Control? I am in control!"** Optimus' voice was distorted and monstrous. He punched Ironhide in the face, nearly dislocating his jaw, and brought his axe down into Ironhide's shoulder, nearly severing his arm. **"I AM OPTIMUS PRIME! THE ALMIGHTY AND ALL POWERFUL! YOU CANNOT HARM ME!"**

Jazz tried to attack him, but Optimus grabbed his kick and threw him into the ground, stomping on his chest.

" **I AM A KING!"**

Prowl shot at Prime, but cursed as his electrical burst merely bounced off Optimus' chest. Optimus lunged at Prowl and grabbed his arm, using him as a club to smack Bulkhead away before throwing him into Wheeljack. They crashed to the ground in a crater, and Prime took out his ion cannon, pointing it at Prowl's face.

" **I AM A GOD!"**

Two missiles slammed into his back and made him stumble. Prowl looked up and saw a ground bridge appear, and from it, Arcee and Skyfire emerged from it and attacked Optimus. As they pushed Optimus back, Gina came through with her talos, key in hand. As soon as she set eyes on Optimus, Gina felt her mind go blank and the key glow brighter. She opened the hatch and jumped down from her cockpit, walking toward the fighting Autobots.

" **Who are you to challenge me?"** Optimus roared and grabbed Skyfire's leg, spinning her around before throwing her into Bulkhead. He felt two blades slide across his back and smacked Arcee away, throwing her to the ground and planting his large foot on her chest. **"You…you will the next to fall, girl "**

" _Optimus Prime."_

Optimus turned and looked at Gina, who was walking towards him without fear. He growled and stomped toward her, though she hardly seemed afraid. The voice she spoke in was a combination of her own and another's.

" _Optimus Prime,"_ Gina raised the key to him. _"Remember."_

Optimus reached down for her and the key shot a beam of light into his chest. He grunted and was brought to his knees by the energy coursing through him. The key floated out of Gina's hand and flew into his chest, connecting with the Matrix within him. His entire body erupted in white hot pain.

" **AGH!"**

His body was outlined in a dark red glow and everyone watched in horrified fascination as the taint corrupting Prime's body was violently ripped off him like a scab. He twitched and struggled, even as the red glow slowly morphed into a luminous white. The omega frequency rang in the air as the powerful pulsations of energy surged through Prime's body, reaching its zenith once the last of the infection was purged from his system. When the last of the virus was pulled from Optimus, there was a powerful explosion of light that blinded everyone, forcing them to look away.

When they were able to see again, the Autobots saw Optimus and Gina lying on the ground. Prime's armor had returned back to its original red and blue, smoke rising off his body. Beside Gina was the key, which was burning hot and lost its glow.

"What…?" Optimus groaned and pushed himself up, feeling weak and tired. He saw Gina lying next to him and gently took her into his hands as she started to wake up.

"Optimus…?" Gina groaned.

"Gina? What happened?" Optimus asked. "I remember the battle at the Stargate and then…nothing."

Gina gave him a tiny smile. "It's a long story. But all I can say is welcome back, Optimus."

The other Autobots, hurt but still functional, gathered around their cured leader, happy to see him back again. Optimus was totally confused about what happened, but he was sure it was something significant.

"Woohoo! All right, we did it!"

Everyone turned to the green form of Moonracer jumping cheerfully. Arcee smiled sheepishly at her friends.

"My little sister, everybody."

XXXXXX

Gina sat on top of the Ark, sitting by the edge of the thrusters. It was late evening, but she told her mother that she was staying at Darren and Annie's house for a sleepover. She needed some time alone after the craziness that happened that day.

It had been a chaotic day. Everyone was celebrating the return of Optimus Prime, and the critical blow he unintentionally dealt to the Decepticons. Prowl briefed Prime on the recent events and it was a lot for Optimus to take in. everyone reassured Optimus that he wasn't himself when he attacked his team, but he still took the news hard, though he didn't show it outwardly.

Ratchet spent a lot of time decontaminating Gina of any lingering radiation that she might have and checking her for any side effects from her little space adventure. Afterwards, Gina was assaulted by her friends; Darren, Annie, Penny, Kevin, and Debbie were all happy to have her back, and she felt the same way. Sureshock didn't want to let her go, and even Sara looked visibly relieved to have her back.

Gina would've fallen asleep with all the craziness that she went through, but she couldn't. Not after what she experienced. So she went to get some fresh air and fully process what she saw back on Cybertron. Large footsteps ushered in Optimus walking up and taking a seat next to her. They sat in silence listening to the quiet sounds of the forest.

"Optimus," Gina said, taking a deep breath. "Is Vector Sigma really a supercomputer…or is it something else entirely?"

"That's a question many have been asking since my kind first began civilization. Only a handful of beings have seen Vector Sigma face to face, and I'm not one of them." Optimus said, looking up at the darkening sky. "It's a question almost as common as how we were created. Honestly, I'm better off not knowing the answers to these questions."

"Well, dad always said that sometimes, it's best to wait for the answers to come to you, instead of trying to seek them out." Gina said, twirling the key in her hands. She held it up to Optimus. "You can have this back. I've done my part."

Optimus took the key back and it shifted into a larger configuration before he placed it in his hip compartment. "Thank you for saving my life, Gina. Everything would have been lost if it wasn't for you."

Gina smiled up at him. "Thank you for believing in me."

They sat in silence once more, and after a few minutes, Gina asked, "Is Vector Sigma some kind of entity? Like a god or something?"

"That's what some people believe, though I think neither of us will uncover that mystery in either of our lifetimes." Optimus said. "But personally, I believe that it is something intelligent enough to call out to you in your time of greatest need."

Optimus looked up to the sky and the stars beyond. "It's as you said; wait for the answer and it will come."


	7. Sting

Chapter 7-Sting

A small, yellow VW Bug drove through the barren Texan landscape at high speed. It left huge clouds of dust in its wake as it did doughnuts in the ground and sped through the rocky terrain as fast as it could go. Behind it, an ambulance and a cyan sports car were trying to keep up with it.

"Bumblebee, slow down!" Ratchet called out. "You were just cleared for duty, don't push yourself so hard so fast!"

"Ratchet, I'm fine! Hell, I feel great!" Bumblebee laughed and did another doughnut, throwing up more dust into the air.

Two weeks passed since Gina's mission to Cybertron and the return of Optimus Prime. Both Gina and Optimus were recovering from their respective ordeals, while Prowl filled Prime in on everything that happened since the hate plague incident. During that time, Bumblebee's recover was going smoothly, and just a few hours ago he was declared healthy and fit for duty. All thanks to Ratchet's hard work. The young Autobot was restless and could hardly wait to go back out into the big, wide world with his newly rebuilt legs.

Bumblebee was a bit disappointed that he missed seeing Gina off on her greatest mission yet, but seeing everyone's happy faces at his recovery made it worth the wait. Everyone had been through a lot already, so having their scout back was the final good thing for them after getting Optimus and Gina back.

"Aw, let him race, doc." Jolt said, hovering above. "You'd be hyper too, if you were cooped up inside for so long."

"Honestly." Ratchet sighed.

"Maybe it's a good idea to just let him go." Moonracer said. "He looks finger."

"Moonracer…" Ratchet started, but she cut him off.

"If anything went wrong, Jolt knows to contact the others." She told him. "Isn't that right, Jolt?"

"You got it!"

It was a surprise to everyone that Moonracer, Arcee's supposedly dead sister, had hitched a ride on Skyfire's transwarp wave and followed her sister to Terra, pretty much forcing herself on to the team. It pissed Arcee off something fierce when she realized what Moonracer did, but there was nothing she could do other than teach her sister about Terra and its people. Optimus formally welcomed her to the team and she scanned a terran alt mode to blend in with. Moonracer got used to Terran life fairly quickly, but she was a rather uppity femme who couldn't sit still for more than five minutes.

Ratchet wasn't amused at Moonracer's supposed bleeding heart. All Bumblebee had to do was dish out his Puppy Dog eyes and everyone would cave in to his requests. He shouldn't be driving around so soon after recovering, he should've been making sure his legs were operating correctly. Still, if he let him burn out that extra energy now, it may be easier to check up on him later.

"Fine, Bumblebee, you can stay out." Ratchet said, and quickly added, "But I'm staying to keep an eye on you."

"No problem, Ratchet!"

After the grim events of the hate plague scare, it was refreshing to see someone so full of life run and play for once. Bumblebee was always one of the livelier Autobots, so bright and optimistic, and seeing him in a coma as half a body was disturbing to those who knew him. It was rare to see a mech who was born in the middle of a war go through life with a smile on his face. With so much violence going on around them, a smile was something of a rarity among soldiers.

XXXXXX

Penny wasn't Gina's best friend. They spent most of their relationship at each other's throats since their feud began in Washington. It was on a personal level, though for different reasons; Gina couldn't fathom being beaten in her own game, being outdone in history and science, which she excelled in. Penny's reasons were of the same vein, but it was also a bit more personal for her since Gina had something that she wanted for herself-family (parents that actually made time for their child) and friends (Kevin was sweet, but he was the only other child who connected with her. Made for some pretty lonely lunches when he was absent from school). Gina was also officially the first human to step foot on an alien world. Penny was willing to give that one up, considering the circumstances, but she didn't have to like it.

Gina was one of the first humans to make first contact, to learn alien language, to make energy weapons (how the hell she managed them was beyond Penny) and to go to an alien planet to save what was essentially Robo-Bhudda! So many achievements and she wasn't even in her teens yet! Penny was supremely jealous, but that was tempered by the fact that she was embroiled in an alien civil war that almost led to her cute little behind getting roasted alongside Kevin. At least she got to discover Queen Sheba's tomb, so that was something.

"This is unreal." Penny breathed as she cycled through the photos that Gina took during her time on Cybertron. They downloaded the data onto Gina's laptop and were now looking at the pictures intently. "How big is their planet?"

"Bigger than Terra, that's for sure. High Wire said that the planet was roughly the same size as Saturn." Gina said. "It was an amazing experience, circumstances aside, but…knowing that's what the Autobots' home looks like kind of ruined the mood, you know?"

Penny nodded. She couldn't imagine having her home planet turned into a smoldering husk that was unlivable anymore. Her heart went out to the Bots.

Gina had went into detail about her meeting with the other Autobots, namely Elita-1 and her Valkyrie team, fighting Insecticons and going into space. But she mysteriously avoided talking about Vector Sigma. She thought that Gina just didn't think it was that important to talk about, but as the conversation went on, she realized that Gina was purposefully avoiding the subject and wanted to know why. When she inquired about the "mystical" supercomputer, Gina went quiet and her expression fell.

"What is Vector Sigma, girl? The Bots talk about it like its some god, which makes sense seeing as it created them and all that, but what exactly is it? The details are way too vague." Penny said.

"I don't know, Penny. Jinkies, I wish I knew, but I can't explain it in words." Gina said and sighed. "Vector Sigma isn't just some supercomputer, it's…it's like a quasi-sentient being. A force of some kind with powers that I can't even imagine in my wildest dreams. When I went into that chamber, I barely remember anything other than a bright light and…waking up outside my talos."

Penny unconsciously reached for Gina's hand. The poor girl looked really spooked. "Damn girl, no wonder you don't want to talk about it. You doing okay?"

"I'm doing fine. Ratchet looked me over and said I'm completely healthy. I'm not having any more visions, either. But…Sara found something else."

Gina motioned for Penny to get behind her and moved her blonde hair to reveal the back of her neck. At the base of her spine was a black tattoo etched onto her skin. Penny gaped at the odd symbol, it was curved like a letter written in cursive and definitely alien.

"Sara found it after I go out of the shower a few days ago." Gina said. She didn't sound too concerned about it, but she wasn't very pleased at learning she had an alien tattoo on the back of her neck. "It's cybertronian, but ancient. As in none of the other Autobots could read it if I showed it to them."

"Does anyone else know about this?"

"Aside from Sara, no. I didn't want to worry anyone about something that might be nothing serious."

"Gina, you don't keep quiet about a freaky alien tattoo that just appears out of nowhere after coming back from a lunch date with a mystical alien god machine." Penny stood over Gina and put her hands on her hips. "Don't hide this from the Bots. This might be serious."

Gina turned around. "Please, Penny don't say anything. It's just a tattoo, and I don't plan on telling anyone unless something actually happens. I only told you because I trust you to keep a secret."

"You trust me?" Penny said with wide eyes. "Me? The girl who you've been trying to outdo for nearly four years and counting?"

"Penny, you're like me. A girl who wants nothing more than to be recognized for making great discoveries. We're a lot alike in that sense. And I trust you because you'd do the same thing in my position and ask me to keep quiet for you."

Penny bit her lip, knowing Gina was right. She would keep this quiet, so long as nothing went wrong. But the potential for disaster was very evident here; that tattoo could either be a harmless brand or the start of something that could be bad. After a few seconds, Penny sighed and nodded her confirmation to keep Gina's secret.

"Fine, I won't say anything to anyone," Penny said. "But the minute that tattoo starts doing somethin' freaky, we're spilling the truth. Okay?"

"I totally understand." Gina said smiling. "Thanks, Penny."

"Anything for a fellow gold digger." Penny grinned.

Gina was happy she finally told someone else other than Sara. She was scared when she saw it for the first time, but after a while, she believed that it wasn't anything to worry about. But what she neglected to tell Penny about was that she had Sara translate the symbol to English. It was another closely guarded feature Sara had, capable of translating cybertronian, even ancient cybertronian to an extent.

According to Sara, the symbol was ancient cybertronian for "Artificer." She had no idea what that meant, but it was probably a title of some kind. What it meant for her in the long run was something she probably wouldn't find out for a long time.

XXXXXX

After managing to convince Optimus to allow him to go out on recon, Bumblebee went out on patrol with Bulkhead for energon. It was nothing that would be too stressful, and shouldn't escalate into anything now that the Cons were keeping quiet. He was happy everyone was concerned about him, but it was getting a bit suffocating.

" _Hey, Bee,"_ Bulkhead said over the comm. _"I'm getting an energy reading near your position. It might be nothing, but could you check it out? I'm be with you in a few minutes."_

"Sure thing, Bulk." Bumblebee replied. He hoped it was some energon; they were starting to run low on the natural stuff and he wasn't a fan of the artificial cubes they made with solar energy.

He drove to the location indicated on his grid scan, a small canyon near the road. He transformed to bipedal mode and walked to the coordinates. When he got there, he saw that it wasn't energon, but some strange looking device that looked like a locator beacon.

"What's this doing here?" He muttered.

When he bent down to inspect it, something hit his chest and his body was violently electrocuted by a strong electrical surge that overloaded his systems. He stumbled back and fell over, falling into unconsciousness.

Mere seconds passed before three helicopters appeared over the edge of the cliff side and landed next to the fallen Autobot. A large group of men in black combat gear exited the copters and moved in on Bumblebee. The last to get out was Aries, Zodiac General of OZ. As the soldiers surrounded the Bumblebee with their assault rifles pointed at him, one of the technicians approached Aries.

"Sir, we have another N.B.E coming this way. ETA: two minutes."

Aries nodded. "Work briskly."

The technician nodded and grabbed a briefcase from one of the other soldiers. He ran over to Bumblebee and knelt over the mech's lower abdomen, opening the case and assembly a high powered, heavy duty power drill. He immediately got started on drilling a hole into the side of Bumblebee's torso, making a hole large enough to him to reach inside.

Aries watched his surroundings like a hawk, his third eye spotting Bulkhead's large form driving down the road just a mile away. "The backup's ahead of schedule."

"As luck would have it," The technician pulled out a large, round spherical device, his arms covered in blue energon. "So am I."

Aries grinned. "Move out!"

The soldiers piled into the helicopters and took off as soon as the last man was inside. They were already gone by the time Bulkhead arrived in his vehicle mode and transformed to check up on his friend.

"Bee! Bee, you okay?" Bulkhead leaned over the scout and roughly patted his face to wake him up. "Come on, Bee, nap time's over."

Bumblebee groaned as he came back online. His head felt fuzzy as he leaned up on his elbows and saw Bulkhead looking down at him. "What happened?"

"I was about to ask you the same thing." Bulkhead said and noticed the hole drilled into the scout's side. "Bee, you're hurt. Were you attacked?"

"I don't know. I got here to investigate the energy reading, and then…nothing." Bumblebee rubbed the back of his head. "Ow, I feel like I got hit by Starscream's null blast."

He stood up unsteadily, refusing Bulkhead's help. He hissed and held a hand to his bleeding abdomen.

"You sure you're okay? You're bleeding." Bulkhead said.

"Don't worry, Bulkhead, I'll live. But we need to catch those chumps that jumped me." Bumblebee said. "I think we can still catch them."

Bulkhead nodded and transformed, driving after the three helicopters he saw leaving the area. Bumblebee ran forward, expecting his bod to convert to vehicle mode…only for nothing to happen. He stopped, confused, and tried to transform again, but nothing happened.

Bulkhead noticed that Bumblebee wasn't driving with him and drove back over to his comrade, changing back to his natural form. "Bee's what's the matter? We rolling or not?"

Bumblebee had a look of intense concentration on his face as he focused on transforming, but still nothing happened. He started to panic and looked at Bulkhead with a frightened expression.

"Bulkhead, something's wrong! I can't transform!"

XXXXXX

The Autobots and children were assembled in the medibay watching Ratchet run a diagnostic scan on Bumblebee. No one said a thing as they let the doctor do his work, but after a while, Moonracer popped the question.

"Find anything, doc?" She asked.

"Not since you asked three minutes ago, Moonracer." Ratchet replied, getting annoyed with the young femme.

"Do you have any idea what's wrong with him, Ratchet?" Gina asked.

"I'm hoping it's nothing serious." Ratchet said. "It might be possible that the electrical surge did some minor damage to your T-cog."

"T-cog?" Annie wrinkled her nose. "Is that the cybertronian version of a t-bone?"

"It's the organ that allows us to transform and scan new alt modes." Arcee explained.

"And a very important component of our physiology." Ratchet added. When he finished his scan, he checked the results on his wrist panel. His expression turned to one of horrified surprise. "By the Allspark."

"What's wrong?" Bumblebee asked, now extremely worried.

"Bumblebee, you T-cog isn't damaged…it's missing!"

The statement shocked everyone, even Prowl, but Bumblebee was the most surprised and horrified by this.

"What do you mean missing?" Ironhide demanded. "It couldn't have just gotten up and rolled away!"

"I don't know what else to yell you, Ironhide." Ratchet transferred the scans of Bumblebee's body onto the computer and pointed to the body's lower abdomen. "See there? That small spot just under the fuel pump is where the T-cog should be."

"B-But, if I don't have a T-cog, then I can't transform anymore! I can't be a cybertronian that can't transform. It's what we're known for!" Bumblebee grabbed his head as he began to panic. "I can't fight if I can't use my wheels! This is what gets people ostracized from society."

"Calm down, Bee. I'm sure Ratchet or Wheeljack can make you another one given enough time." Darren said, but his words only made Bumblebee groan in despair. "W-What did I say?"

"Darren, a T-cog is a bio mechanism, not a scrapyard find!" Ratchet snapped. "It's no more replaceable than a vocal synthesizer or a brain module! They can't be built, only repaired if damaged."

"You're born with one, you die with one." Prowl said forlornly.

"I'm useless now!" Bumblebee cried. "What good is a scout that can't make a speedy getaway?"

"Don't say that, Bee." Jolt said as he patted his friend's arm. "You're not useless. You still got your hands and feet, and your weapons. You can still fight."

"Even so, we must find out who stole Bumblebee's T-cog if we are to retrieve it." Optimus said.

"Maybe the Cons did it." Bulkhead suggested.

"I don't think the Cons would want an organ they all have, Bulkhead." Darren said. "I don't think even Knockout is into body play."

"So who the hell did it?" Annie growled.

"Was there anything you guys noticed that might give us a hint?" Arcee asked Bulkhead and Bumblebee. The scout looked lost, but Bulkhead remembered something.

"Helicopters!" He snapped his fingers. "I remember hearing helicopter rotors when I found Bee."

"Helicopter blades? Like…" Darren's face darkened. "I think I know who might've done this."

"Who?" Moonracer blinked.

"The ones who cannibalized Lugnut." Bulkhead said darkly.

"And tried to gut me." Arcee hissed.

Optimus was the one to voice everyone's thoughts at once. "OZ."

XXXXXX

"Beginning installation."

Aries watched intently as the technicians carefully installed the T-cog into the life-sized robotic skeleton. It was almost as tall as Optimus Prime, sporting a skeletal frame based on the Autobot leader's body frame and only sported a few pieces of armor. Once the biomechanical organ was implanted into the robot's torso, the head technician entered the activation code and the robot's systems started up one by one.

Project Golem was moving smoothly. This prototype was merely the first step in building a fully functional autonomous mechanoid based off preliminary scans from previous encounters with the Autobots and what information was gained from Lugnut's dissection, as well as the missing arm of the Autobot Jazz (courtesy of Circuit Breaker). It was far from complete, as this was simply the trial run to test if the T-cog was compatible. If everything went according to plan, OZ could have developed the world's first army of high tech drones controlled by the men and women of OZ.

"Scanning."

Two beams of light shot out of the robot's eyes and ran over their chosen alternate mode, the Tumbler, a highly mobile armored truck based off of stolen military blueprints to create a mobile armored support vehicle. When the scanning was complete, a wireframe scan of the vehicle appeared on the computer and was downloaded. Once that was done, all that was left was the final step.

"Initiating transformation sequence."

A pull of the lever and the T-cog spun in its cradle within the robot's torso. However, instead of the robot transforming into another machine, it did nothing. The technician tried again, only to get no results. Aries scowled as he tried again and again but nothing happened.

"What's the problem?" Aries asked.

"We…don't know, sir. The systems are fully functional and no abnormal power readings, but robot isn't responding to our commands."

"Then find the problem and fix it!" Aries yelled. His anger spurred the men into action, not wanting to piss of the man who could literally vaporize them with a blink of his third eye.

"Well, this is embarrassing." Aquarius remarked as she strolled up to her partner in crime. "All that work to get a single organ and this is all we get. Honestly, I'm beginning to think this was a waste of time."

"It was your idea." Aries growled.

"I know, but you didn't say no to it. And for the record, I thought that cybertronian tech would be somewhat compatible with Terran technology." She sighed. "Looks like it was wrong."

All activity was halted when a chilling laugh filled the air. Everyone turned to the large doors of the warehouse they were operating in as they were opened slightly and a glowing eye peeked through the crack. Pushing the doors open, the alien visitor entered the warehouse, not caring about the humans pointing their weapons at her.

She was a cybertronian, a femme with deep green and gold armor but sported no faction symbol on her person. Her head looked like a pharaoh's mask, gold and lacking any features aside from a pair of narrow, deep red eyes that glowed in the darkness of the warehouse. She walked toward the two generals as if she were greeting old friends instead of heavily armed soldiers.

"So you're the humans who turned poor Lugnut into a science experiment." The mysterious stranger laughed, her voice low and sensual. She lightly tapped a helicopter blade as she approached them. "Didn't learn much from the experience, did you?"

Red dots appeared along her body as the multiple talos pointed their weapons at her, ready to fire at a moment's notice. Despite the obvious threats, she didn't look concerned at all.

"Enough to know where the soft spots are, Decepticon." Aquarius said, summoning water around her. The femme snorted and rolled her eyes.

"Please, I'm not affiliated with those Fulcrum fueled band of bastards. I'm a part of something grander in scale." She looked at the talos and sighed. "Put those guns away. If I wanted you dead, you'd all be bloody smears on the floor. I am merely here to provide my assistance."

Aries stared up at her for a moment before motioning his troops to lower their weapons. Aquarius glared at him.

"What the hell are you doing?" She hissed.

"Let's hear what she has to say. This may be the opportunity we've been waiting for." Aries said and looked back at the femme. "Speak, stranger."

The femme nodded and casually walked up to the robot. "You see, humans, a T-cog is not technology, but biology. It's evolved to work only with cybertronian biology, so stuffing it inside a drone won't get it to work." She said. Seeing she had the generals' attention, she continued. "And you'll also need energon for it to work if it was possible. It's the fuel, ammunition and very lifeblood of our race."

She raised an arm and sliced into her forearm with a sharp fingertip. Blue liquid welled up from the cut and dripped to the floor.

"Fascinating." Aquarius whispered.

"We appreciate your advice, but we still do not know why you're here, talking to us." Aries said. "I imagine that you just walk up to aliens and offer your assistance on a whim."

"Nothing of the sort. It's just that our goals mesh." She said. "My comrades off world have taken notice of your noble crusade and wish to aid your organization in realizing its goals. If you want further proof, then feel free to talk to your leader, Ophiuchus."

Aries and Aquarius traded surprised glances with each other. Few outside the organization knew of their leader's name. This femme knew more than she was letting on, things that could get her killed. It raised some warning flags, but this might be their chance to gain an upper hand against the Autobots and Decepticons.

"Very well, we'll work with you." Aries said.

"Excellent, we can share resources to make both our jobs easier." The femme said in a chipper tone. "You won't regret this."

"Also, could you give us your name?" Aquarius requested. "We can't simply call you alien, can we?"

"No, that'd be incredibly rude." She laughed, red eyes flashing like two rubies. "I am Thornment, proud member of the Order."

XXXXXX

After a few days of searching, the Autobots were no closer to finding any signs of OZ activity than they were when they started. It was harder to find OZ than Decepticons because they didn't know what to look for. OZ has resources all over the world, hiding in plain sight, and the Zodiac weren't so confident that they'd just walk out into the open. And with each passing day, Bumblebee's mood got worse to the point that even his armor looked duller in color. He was getting more impatient each day and it was driving Ratchet up the wall.

"Hey, Ratchet! Did you-"

"No, Bumblebee. There hasn't been any update since you asked me an hour ago. And the hour before that as well." Ratchet grumbled. "I will let you know if something turns up."

Bumblebee sighed. "Okay."

Thirty minutes later, Bumblebee was hovering over his shoulder again.

"Did you find anything now?" He asked again.

Ratchet spun around to give the scout a piece of his mind. "I swear to all that is holy-"

"Bee, you wanna play a game with us?" Sonar called out form the hallway.

"Sure!" Bumblebee followed the Minicon out of the storage room, leaving Ratchet to his blissful silence, and narrowly avoided getting knocked out by a wrench to the head.

He followed Sonar to the west wing where the kids were going against the Air Defense team in a two player video game. Desperately in need of a distraction, Bumblebee sat down next to the kids to see what game they were playing. To his utter dismay, he saw that they were playing a racing game.

"Oh man." Bumblebee groaned. Annie saw him sitting there and quickly shut the game off, interrupting Darren and Jetstorm's race.

"Oh come on!" Jetstorm complained.

"Shut it!" Annie hissed and pushed him off the couch. "Hey, Bee, how about we watch some TV? That should make you feel better."

"Sure, I need a distraction." Bumblebee sighed.

She changed the channel to cable, and to her horror, she just happened to switch it to a program showing a Nascar race going on. As if to add insult to injury, the commercial shown right after was an advertisement of a shiny new sports car speeding down a highway with its engine roaring. The twins both winced in unison.

"Bad call, sis." Darren muttered. Gina shook her head at the display and patted Bumblebee's large foot.

"Bee, look at me." She said, gaining his attention. "It's okay if you can't transform. Your alt mode doesn't define who you are. It's your skills as a scout and soldier that matter on the team. You're fully capable of bringing the hurt without your wheels."

Bumblebee smiled and nodded (though his smile didn't reach his eyes). "Yeah…thanks, Gina. I'm going to check up on the guys downstairs."

"Bee…" Gina sighed as she watched him leave, but stayed behind.

Bumblebee took the lift down to the lower deck and toward the shuttle bay where Prowl was manning the ground bridge waiting for the recon team to return. The tactician offered him a short nod before returning to his work. Typical Prowl behavior, but it was to be expected. Bumblebee didn't want everyone acting like he lost his voice box or something.

The landing hatch opened up and two cars sped out of the forest, one pink and one green. Arcee and Moonracer completed their race around the mounting and were having the time of their lives as they returned to the ship.

"What a rush!" Arcee breathed, smiling.

"That was great, big sis!" Moonracer giggled. "You broke 120 easy…"

They quieted down when they saw a fuming Bumblebee standing there glaring at them and the sisters winced. "Oh…"

"That's it! I can't take anymore!" Bumblebee yelled and marched down the landing hatch.

"Where are you going?" Prowl asked.

"Out for a walk, what else?" Bumblebee grumbled as he made his way outside, but Prowl got in his way.

"You can't just go for a walk! We are robots in disguise and without the ability to transform, you'll risk being seen, even out here." Prowl told him and grabbed his arm. "You'll just have to remain in the Ark until-"

"Until what?!" Bumblebee threw Prowl's hand off and glared at him. "Until you can fix me?"

Bumblebee marched away back inside the ship, leaving Prowl and the two sisters alone. Prowl watched him go and sighed.

"Yes, Bumblebee. Until we can fix you." He muttered.

XXXXXX

Gina, still hung up over Bumblebee's little breakdown earlier, didn't know what else to do other than seek help from someone else in how to help her friend. She went to the medibay, where Ratchet was at his desk reading a datapad that had a digitized version of a medical book on human maladies. Ratchet noticed her and beckoned her forward.

"Gina, is something wrong?" He asked.

"No…yes. It's Bumblebee. Seeing him act like this, it's…unsettling, and I'm afraid of what he might do to get his T-cog back." Gina sighed. Ratchet nodded and lifted her onto the desk so they could talk better. "Ratchet, have you ever dealt with patients that've lost their T-cogs?"

Ratchet's gaze turned dark and he looked at his hands. After a minute, he answered her question. "Though rare, you will find people who have willingly sacrificed their T-cogs for various purposes. Before the war, there was an activist group called the Militant Monoform Movement, Triple M; they rejected the existence of Adaptus, one of our chief gods, by removing their T-cogs and having only one base form."

"That's extreme." Gina said.

"Those were extreme times." He replied. "A T-cog is an important part of cybertronian physiology. It allows us to transform, something that's within our very nature and biology. To lose that would be to lose a part of one's self, some would say. If properly remove, it won't do any damage physically, but there are social consequences, such as isolation and discrimination. Back in the day, it was called Shapism."

Gina wondered what kind of world Cybertron was before the war after hearing so many not-so-good things about how things were run in those days. She could hardly imagine such a life, being a cybertronian who couldn't transform in a society where such an ability was a part of everyday life. The discrimination, the taunts, the jeers, the general stigma that spawns from such deformities.

"Will Bumblebee be alright?" Gina asked.

"He'll be fine. OZ was surprisingly gentle when they removed his T-cog. If they had torn it out, he would've suffered some physiological effects caused by the removal of his organ. It's due to a medical theory called Rossum's Trinity. Psychologically, he's still stable, though that could change the longer this search goes on." Ratchet explained. "I once treated a patient like Bumblebee, a Seeker who suffered from a minor case of Gold Plastic Syndrome that spread from her fuel pump to her T-cog. It crippled her ability to transform and left her unable to get a transplant, grounding her for life. When I told her the bad news, she had a violent breakdown and started clawing and tearing at her wings and face, nearly ripping them off. She killed herself a day later."

Gina put a hand to her mouth. "Gaia…"

"While I like to think that Bumblebee knows better than to commit suicide, his morale isn't getting any better the longer this situation is dragged out. He just got out of an operation and now he's taken off duty again not too long after." Ratchet sighed. "If we don't hit a breakthrough soon, I fear that Bumblebee might do something drastic to get his T-cog back…with fatal consequences."

XXXXXX

When Optimus returned to the Ark with Ironhide, he found Ratchet waiting for him in the shuttle bay. Ironhide knew when he wasn't needed and waved the two off as they walked down the hall past Bumblebee's quarters, where the scout had been holed up in his room for the past few hours. He hadn't spoken to anyone, not even Jolt.

"Bumblebee's right to have little faith. We have no leads as to OZ's location, and we still haven't gotten any reports from Skyfire." Ratchet said. "We can't act without a solid lead, and the chances of finding his T-cog are lowering the more we wait."

"I know." Optimus nodded. "OZ has been at this game longer than we have and they know how to hide in plain sight."

"Yes, and playing their game will only waste time." Ratchet agreed. "Which is why I propose another solution."

"A transplant," Optimus sighed. "But that would require a donor. And we can't afford to have any more Autobots off the field, right now."

Ratchet contemplated his next words before he spoke them. "You need look no further than the one standing before you."

Optimus looked at Ratchet with an unreadable expression. The medic was dead serious about his decision in a way only a mech of his profession could be.

"Ratchet, your offer is generous, but you would only be trading one Autobot's handicap for another." Optimus said.

"Optimus, I am a doctor, not a warrior. I spend most of my days here, with my tools and my hands." He held up his hands, old and word with age, but still capable of saving lives. "Hands trained to save lives, not take them. My alt mode is wasted here. So long as I have my tools, I'm fine here. But we can't afford to lose even one warrior on the field."

"You make a compelling argument, my friend." Prime stated and placed a hand on Ratchet's shoulder. "But we will find Bumblebee's T-cog."

"Optimus, OZ are savages! You've seen what they've done to Lugnut. What they tried to do to Arcee, Darren and Annie. Primus knows how much damage they've done to Bumblebee's T-cog…or if I can repair it."

"Ratchet…" Optimus paused. Though he tried hard to be practical and emotionally detached from his job, Ratchet couldn't help but take it personally if he couldn't help someone in his care.

"As a medic, it's my job to go above and beyond for my patients…and my friends." Ratchet said strongly. "Please, let me do this."

Optimus was silent for a moment before he gave a resigned sigh and nodded his consent to Ratchet's plan. It was no substitute for Bumblebee's real T-cog, but at least it will give the scout a crunch until they could get his real organ back. He just hoped they weren't too late.

XXXXXX

A little while later, Ratchet assembled some Autobot personnel into the medibay after prepping his operation. As Longarm set up the medical equipment with Bumblebee, Ratchet looked at his chosen line-up of Bots who could help at this time-Arcee, Moonracer, and Bulkhead. The children were there for moral support.

"As I will be one of the patients involved, one of you must act as my proxy to perform the surgery." Ratchet said to them, looking like an Army sergeant. "Now, I am well aware of your lack of medical knowledge, so Longarm will be guiding you through the operation."

He went down the line to inspect the candidates, starting with Bulkhead. Ratchet didn't need to ponder having him for the job. "Nope. Better at breaking things."

Bulkhead breathed a sig. He was the last person who wanted to get involved with handling someone's innards. Ratchet moved onto Moonracer, who was practically bouncing in place waiting to be picked.

"I'm not even going to entertain the idea." Ratchet said.

Moonracer pouted as he moved onto Arcee, who was desperately praying that he didn't choose her. But when Ratchet didn't give her any immediate criticism, she knew she was fragged.

"Arcee…"

"Optimus has steadier hands." She quickly said.

"Steady, and much too large to be rooting around under my hood." Ratchet said.

Arcee groaned as Ratchet went to prepare the medical tools. "Primus help me."

"Come on, Cee. You're as brave as they come." Darren said.

"On a battlefield," Arcee said. "Not an operating theatre."

"So long as you're using the knife, Arcee, not under it." He said. She gave him a little smile.

Bumblebee and Ratchet got onto the medical slabs as Arcee set everything up under Longarm's direction. She attached some cables to the backs of their heads to induce artificial stasis.

"Inducing stasis." Announced Longarm. Bumblebee turned to Ratchet.

"Ratchet, thanks a lot for doing this." He said. "I mean it."

"Don't thank…me until this is…" Ratchet's voice droned out as he fell into stasis.

Once Ratchet was fully put under, Longarm moved to work on Bumblebee, but the intercom switched on and Sparkplug's face appeared on the monitor. "Guys, can you hear me?"

"We're here, Sparkplug. What's the problem?" Arcee asked.

"Teletran-1 just picked up a Minicon signal in Anea. Prime wants some Autobots in the shuttle bay on the double."

"On my way." Arcee dropped her tools, mentally thanking the gods, and ran out of the room. "Moon, Bulkhead, you're with me. Kids, don't touch anything!"

"Whoa, whoa, what about me?" Bumblebee sat up. "What should I do?"

"We'll continue operation when we get back, but right now, wait for Ratchet to wake up and tell him what happened." She told him and was gone before he could get a word in.

Bumblebee sighed and looked at the children. With nothing to do, surely they were sympathetic enough to let him get some fresh air. "You guys wouldn't mind-"

"No." They shot him down without pause. There went that idea.

"Scrap." He sighed.

XXXXXX

A three man team of Codarls walked through the deep canyon in the state of Kokomo, following a signal with a scanner that was programmed into their mecha's OS. Seeing the indicator hit the red zone, the team leader moved forward with his two subordinates and with three mining type Orion talos rolling behind them. At the rear was Thornment and Aquarius, who walked at a more leisurely pace.

"I admit, I was skeptical about your proposal, but you seem trustworthy." Aquarius said. "I'm certainly excited to see what treasures we can uncover with your help."

"Yes, energon has a way of uniting even organics if used correctly." Thornment said. "With the right application, you'll be able to create weapons that would make even Megatron run to the hills."

"That would be a sight. I'm sure even Aries will be excited at the notion." She said and looked up at the femme. "But I'm curious, why are you helping us? The Autobots and Decepticons move heaven and earth to make sure that we don't have access to their technology, and here you are, just giving us all kinds of secrets to benefit from. Are you not concerned with what happens if our experiment fails? What if we lose that T-cog and decide that yours might be perfect compensation for our troubles?"

Thornment wasn't too concerned about the implications of that state, just waving Aquarius off with a thin, spindly hand. "Please, general. Do you think I'd approach you for an alliance without having my own set of contingency plans? I'm powerful, but I didn't get to where I am today by being reckless. I've heard of your little misadventures with Flamewar, and I'm not gung-ho fool like Megatron."

"So long as we have an understanding." Aquarius sniffed. It was foolish of her to egg the femme on, but Aquarius wanted to see how much she could push before making her snap. Apparently a lot, since Thornment wasn't perturbed at all at being subtly threatened. Probably because she had a plan in case something did go wrong. "You said that you came here on behalf of your comrades…what comrades are those."

"The type who seek salvation in the stars. Like you, we have assembled to salvage our race and achieve a new form of evolution that will take us to great heights. A goal now possible thanks to the assistance of beings you call gods. The Order's main task is to evolve the cybertronian race into an enlightened society, but we can't do that with those pompous fools playing their war games and killing thousands of our people every day." Thornment looked down at her human companion. "My leader, Ember, has told me of you. The thirteen general born from the womb of Her Grace to usher in a new era for mankind, no different from us, in fact. As people who were also touched by the gods, it's on her behalf that I come to you to provide my assistance, to show that your goals can be achieved."

As cryptic as that explanation was, Aquarius believed Thornment's statement. The White Queen, the supreme commander of OZ, had indeed confirmed having made contact with like-minded beings off world, seeking a true path to evolution for their kind as well. It was by the will of the Shapings that man and machine unite to save two worlds and evolve into species no longer limited by the chains of mortality. OZ and the Order were being aided by divine benefactors who sponsored their crusade and harnessed the power behind Creation. Aquarius knew they were far from their endgame, but with some help from the stars, OZ's chances of success just went up exponentially.

The strike team led the way deeper into the canyon, following the signal to a large cluster of crystals growing from the ground in a small cave at the base of the cliff. A snake-like smile spread across Aquarius' features.

"Energon," She whispered, looking upon the mineral as if it was pure gold. "Ready to be harvested."

"And processed," Thornment said, smiling. "To give us the edge."

XXXXXX

"What great timing." Annie sighed. "You think Bee will actually get this transplat or is this going to be a running gag."

"I certainly hope not. Bumblebee's morale is already at an all-time low." Sureshock said. "For our race, not being able to transform permanently is akin to a death sentence."

"Right after we just got him back from Death's door too, damn life sucks." Grindor said.

"That's why it's called life." Darren said.

"Guys, could you not be so depressing? We need to be strong for Bee, because he needs all the support he can get." Gina said, giving them all stern glares. "And he's not going to feel any better if we treat him like he's got only two days to live. Pity is the last thing he needs."

"Yeah, but at this point the only thing that'll get him out of that funk is finding those OZ bastards," Annie said, balancing her chair on the back of its legs. "And the chances of finding them is about a thousand to on-"

" _YO!"_ Skyfire's face appeared on the monitor with a loud yell.

"Ah!" Annie screamed and her chair fell back, sending her to the floor. "What the fuck!"

"Skyfire, what's up?" Sparkplug asked.

" _I just got wind of an energon signal from orbit and tracked it to this warehouse in Nebrask."_ Skyfire said. "And there's a lot of talos parked outside."

"Talos? Are they green and black?" High Wire asked.

"Yup."

The kids looked at each other with wide eyes, knowing what this meant. "Skyfire, does this mean you actually found…"

"OZ, and a lot of them. The place is seriously guarded-too guarded for a small installation like this." Skyfire said.

"WHAT?!"

The group turned to see Bumblebee marching towards them. "What are we waiting for? Let's go!"

"Hold your horses, Bee," Sparkplug said. "Optimus specifically ordered you to remain here for the time being. We should call the others back."

"Optimus is busy fighting a dolem in Anea and Arcee's team is retrieving a stasis panel." Darren said. "Everyone's too busy right now."

"Except us." Annie pointed out. Bumblebee's expression brightened.

"Does that mean…?"

"Against our better judgment, we'll go on ahead and help you get your T-cog back." Gina said, smiling up at him. "Our Talos are more than enough to fight OZ's talos, and we have Skyfire on our side."

"Kids this is the most reckless thing that you're planning!" Sparkplug said. "I can't let you all go alone into the lion's den like this."

"I'm sorry, Sparkplug, but we're going. This is our only chance of catching OZ off guard and getting Bee's T-cog back in one piece." Darren said. "We can't wait any longer."

Sparkplug rubbed the bridge of his nose in annoyance. Why did he even bother trying? "Fine, but be careful. If things get too dangerous-"

"You're pulling us back, got it." Annie said, already making her way to the armory. "Let's go people!"

As the kids went to get their mecha, Bumblebee took a deep breath and prepared himself. He was going to get those bastards back for attacking him, and he wasn't going to stop until he got his T-cog back.

XXXXXX

"What do you mean the T-cog is useless?"

'And here we go.' Aquarius thought as she stood between Thornment and Aries at their field base. After a successful energon hunt, the soldiers were transporting large crates of raw energon to their secret airship landing site for processing. During the transition, Thornment dropped the bombshell of the futility of their efforts.

"You heard me. Trying to build a Terran machine that uses a cybertronian T-cog won't work." Thornment said. "It will only operate with cybertronian biology, and considering how long it took for you to capture Lugnut and Arcee, I doubt you can capture enough Cybertronians for your rather…significant demands."

"We risked a lot trapping an Autobot to get this thing and now you're telling me that it's useless?" Aries was on the verge of losing his composure.

"I never said that your efforts were for naught." Thornment said. "You have a fully intact T-cog at your disposal, as well as the resources of a small country. If you plan on mass producing some robot army, then you need to mass produce your very own T-cog."

"…As in build one of our own?" Aquarius deduced.

Thornment nodded. "Exactly. Just run some diagnostic scans on the T-cog and I'll guide you through the construction process. I do recall you humans being rather skilled at reverse-engineering technology."

Aries and Aquarius shared a grin at that. Finally, they were getting somewhere!

Their triumph was cut short, however, when they heard a loud boom go off outside. The generals were immediately on alert when they started getting reports from the guards outside.

" _Sir, we're under attack! Three unknown talos and two Autobots are storming the base!"_ The squad leader exclaimed. _"They're mowing us down!"_

"Don't let them get past you, you fools! Kill them all!" Aquarius yelled.

The large doors were suddenly blasted apart, and the humans near it were barely able to get out of the way of the metal pieces flying off. Stepping into the warehouse was Bumblebee, who looked furious.

"The scout." Aries grinned.

"Welcome to the party, little one!" Thornment greeted, eyes shining with mirth. "But you'll have to show your invitation first."

Bumblebee hardly acknowledge the unknown cybertronian as he pointed his stingers at the generals. "Here's my invitation!"

He fired two electrostatic blasts at the Zodiac. The generals jumped apart to dodge the blasts and the soldiers open fire on Bumblebee, though the Autobot fought back just as hard. He tore apart the catwalk on the second level and slammed it into the floor, forcing the soldiers to back off. Aquarius summoned her water, but Bumblebee jumped back and threw a grenade at her.

"Shit!" Aquarius formed an ice shield around her as the grenade exploded, shattering her icy barrier and sending her crashing into a wall. She pushed herself up and popped her dislocated shoulder back in. "I thought you said the yellow one was the weakest!"

"I did." Aries said dryly.

He ran forward and fired a heat beam from his eye, hitting Bumblebee in the shoulder. Bumblebee stumbled back but collapsed into his vehicle mode in one smooth motion, speeding straight toward Aries. He slammed into the general at full speed and sent the man tumbling over his hood and crashing to the ground. Unsurprisingly, the general survived, but he was severely bruised and had many cracked bones from the hit and run alone.

"Where is my T-cog!" Bumblebee roared as he switched back to bipedal mode. His answer came in the form of a glowing red whip covered in thorns that slammed into his chest and knocked him into the computer terminal. The red hot thorns dug into his armor and painfully tore through his metal skin.

The whips came from Thornment's arms, slithering back into her forearms as she walked toward the scout. "Attacking humans with little to no restraint? How savage of you." Thornment laughed. "I thought Autobots enjoyed playing fair."

"Only when they're not pissed off." Bumblebee growled. "Who the hell are you?"

"I am Thornment. Proud member of the Order and your executioner!"

Thornment lunged at Bumblebee, throwing her whips at his face. Bumblebee ducked under them and leapt at her, his left arm splitting apart to unsheathe a vibro-blade. He slashed at her chest, but took a kick to the chest. Thornment punched him in the face and tried to wrap her whips around his neck, but he dodged her and landed a punch of his own.

Aries groaned and pushed himself to his feet, wincing at the aches in his bones and spat out a wad of blood before scowling at the Autobot. "All units…we're making a tactical retreat."

"What?!" Aquarius screamed, still feeling pain in her shoulder.

"Our location and prototype have been compromised. We're not equipped to fight three talos and two angry Autobots." He said. "Take whatever data we can and fall back to another facility."

Aquarius growled, but agreed with his reasons. She and Aries got up and ran for the rear exit at the back of the warehouse, making it through the door just as Thornment crashed into the doorway.

Bumblebee ran over to the robot in the hangar and tore its chest panels open. He saw his T-cog in its lower abdomen and quickly pulled it out of the robot's torso.

"I got it!" He said, smiling.

At that moment, the kids, having already finished with the talos outside, ran into the warehouse. But before anyone could reach Bumblebee, two heat rods hit Bumblebee in the chest and threw him to the ground. He lost his hold on his T-cog and it flew right into the grasp of Thornment.

"I don't think this belongs to you anymore." She laughed.

XXXXXX

Ratchet was rarely the one put under induced stasis lock, and though he was no stranger to it, it still felt a bit strange.

' _Ratchet.'_

Who was calling his name?

' _Ratchet…'_

It took Ratchet a moment to completely wake up. Images started to slowly take shape as his optics came back online and when he fully regained consciousness, he found himself back in the Ark's medibay. Longarm was standing next to his medical slab.

"How are you feeling, Ratchet?" Longarm asked.

"Fine…more than fine, actually." Ratchet said as he sat up and rolled his shoulders. Stasis lock was not kind to old mechs like him. "I feel no different than I did before. Maybe I should have Arcee fill in for me again in the future." He looked over to the adjacent slab and noticed a certain scout was missing. "Where's Bumblebee?"

Longarm looked away nervously. "He's…out."

"Out? Bumblebee's recovering from surgery, he shouldn't even be moving!" Ratchet exclaimed.

Longarm looked very uncomfortable now. "Yeah, about that…"

XXXXXX

Bumblebee glared at Thornment as she held his T-cog hostage. The children had their weapons pointed at her as well, but didn't fire. They didn't want to accidentally hit the organ she was holding.

"Put the T-cog down!" Darren commanded.

"Or you'll do what? Shoot me?" Thornment said, a grin in her voice. "You're not in any position to make demands of me."

Another explosion came from outside-Skyfire had probably ran into the Zodiac generals.

"Why are you helping them?" Bumblebee asked. "Don't you know what those people are capable of?"

"I'm well aware of OZ's actions and it's the reason I'm working with them." Thornment said. "I'm no Decepticon, if that's what you're thinking. The goal I share with my comrades in the stars are greater than this petty squabble you call a war. These generals are kindred spirits, mortals touched by gods like myself."

"You're insane." Annie growled.

"Insanity and ingenuity go hand in hand. If you want to excel in something, then you must lose something in return." She replied and squeezed the T-cog in her hand. "If you fools know what's good for you, you'd back off. Or you'll be walking home for the rest of your life!"

"Here's another option!" Darren yelled.

He telekinetically lifted and threw a steel beam into her back, knocking her over. The T-cog was thrown from her grasp and Bumblebee immediately jumped to catch it. Time seemed to slow down for Bumblebee. He was almost there, and his fingertips grazed the rigid surface of his T-cog. He almost had it…

BANG!

The children watched in horror as an energy bolt hit his T-cog and it crashed to the ground in a smoky, blackened heap. Thornment's palm was smoking from her recent attack and she grinned.

"First rule of warfare: never let the enemy have the spoils."

Thornment cackled and transformed into her alt mode, an odd looking slender aircraft similar to a cybertronian drone flyer. Powering up her jet engines, she flew past the children and outside, slamming into Skyfire as she disappeared into the forest.

No one chased after her. They were more concerned with Bumblebee, who say on his knees cradling his smoking T-cog. He looked absolutely devastated.

"No…" He whispered.

"Bee..." Gina cursed. She jumped when her comm switched on and Ratchet's angry voice rang in her ear.

" _Gina! Damn it, Gina answer me. What the hell are you and Bumblebee-"_

"Ratchet, we've got Bumblebee's T-cog but…we need some help here. It's not looking very good." She said.

XXXXXX

A few tense hours later, Bumblebee was back in the medibay recovering from the operation to reinstall his T-cog while Ratchet ran some final diagnostic scans over his patient to make sure everything went alright. His T-cog had suffered some serious damage from Thornment's cheap shot and Ratchet was afraid that he'd be able to repair it. The medic was still winning to donate his cog to Bumblebee, but the young scout refused, saying that he could not and would not accept the offer. After finishing his scans, he switched it off and turned to the rest of the team.

"I…did what I could." Ratchet said.

Optimus walked up and put a consoling hand on Ratchet's shoulder. "Bumblebee could not have been in better hands."

When the stasis finally wore off, Bumblebee groaned and sat up. "Ugh, I thought I wouldn't have to go through that again." He said groggily, lightly rubbing the spot where Ratchet had inserted his T-cog.

"Easy, Bumblebee." Ratchet cautioned. "Recovery takes time, and you're still sore."

Bumblebee slowly stood up and stretched his limbs before immediately focusing on transforming. He willed his T-cog to spin, but all he heard was a clicking noise before nothing happened. He shot Ratchet a worried glance.

"The damage was…severe. I did the best I could, but…" Ratchet trailed off, unable to look Bumblebee in the eye.

But Bumblebee didn't give up, he continued pushing and pushing, hoping that he'd be able to transform again. As if in answers to his prayers, Bumblebee felt his T-cog spin and then felt the familiar experience of his body folding and rearranging into his vehicle mode.

"It works!" He cried out.

The whole room erupted into cheers of joy and relief from everyone present. Bumblebee transformed back into his robot mode and ran over to Ratchet to hug him.

"Ratchet, I got my wheels back!"

"I can see that!" Ratchet laughed.

"Unbelievable," Prowl muttered. "I thought Bumblebee's T-cog was scrap. The damage done to it was extreme and the chances of it being repaired were almost in the single digits."

"Never underestimate Ratchet's expertise, Prowl. As much as skill factors into saving lives for a living, faith must also be present for miracles to be made." Optimus said. "And Ratchet has faith in himself, as much as his abilities."

No matter the reason, everyone was just glad to have their scout back, and that Bumblebee was whole again.

XXXXXX

Thornment led Aries and Aquarius through a forest at an undisclosed location. Despite having been chased off earlier, the femme looked rather calm.

"If you want our alliance to continue, Thornment, then I suggest that you find a way to replace our missing T-cog," Aries demanded, stilling sporting the wounds he gained from Bumblebee's hit and run on him. Had he not have a superhuman physiology, he would've been in the hospital for a long time. "Or we'll help yourselves to yours!"

"Of course. Because your track record in fighting Cybertronians is spotless. That performance you gave with the scout was riveting." Thornment said, rolling her eyes. She tilted her head to dodge the beam fired at her head. "Relax, Aries, I have another gift that'll solve your problems."

"Oh really?" Aquarius sneered.

Thornment led the pair to a cave deep in the forest, where they came upon an unexpected discovery-Insecticons. Two dozen Insecticon soldiers were moving in and out of the cave like worker bees. They all had black and purple armor, but one of them, a golden brown alpha, was different than the rest. He looked up and saw Thornment and her little companions.

"Thornment, what is this?" The Insecticon known as Venom growled.

A wicked gleam appeared in Thornment's eyes. "Insecticons, I am in need of your assistance. These humans require a valuable item that can fully cement our alliance."

"And what would that be?" Venom asked, his wings fluttering in agitation.

"Your bodies."


	8. Missing Hearts

Chapter 8-Missing Hearts

"Optimus, we have a situation!"

Ratchet's announcement shattered what was a quiet night. The kids and their guardians were at home, and Decepticon activity was still low, so the Autobots managed to sneak some quiet moments in between missions, but like all things, nothing lasts forever.

Optimus entered the computer room with Prowl, where Ratchet was already at the Teletran-1 terminal as it gave an emergency alert.

"What's the problem?" Prowl asked.

"Teletran just detected a two unknown ships of cybertronian origin just entered orbit." Ratchet said. He brought up a video on the monitor and showed live footage channeled by their satellites. The two ships had crashed in the middle of the Dakote countryside; one ship sported typical Decepticon construction, the dark purple colors and spikes, and the other was an Autobot ship that was designed for personal transport. Both ships were damaged and their occupants were engaged in battle.

There were three cybertronians, two Decepticons and one Autobot. The two Cons looked almost identical, showing that they were possibly twins from birth; one was blue and the other was blue. They transformed into jets of cybertronian design, leaving luminous exhaust trails behind them as they flew through the air attacking the single Autobot they were fighting. As for the Autobot, he was in his vehicle mode, a green and yellow cybertronian attack helicopter that was shooting his forward mounted plasma gun at the twins and was doing a good job holding them back. It was Bulkhead who recognized the Autobot's color scheme.

"Springer?" Bulkhead whispered. "That's Springer!"

"What's Springer doing on Terra? Shouldn't he be with the Wreckers?" Ratchet questioned.

"We can ask him ourselves once we pull his aft out of the fire." Prowl said. "They crashed just a few miles outside a town. If we don't get there first, humanity's first contact will be on the evening news."

XXXXXX

The Autobot Springer cursed as two missiles exploded near his tail rotor, nearly throwing him out of the sky. He fired his twin laser cannons at the purple femme that attacked him and managed to score a few hits on her. He didn't have time to celebrate as he noticed that one of the other mechs was trying to flank him, the blue one named Dreadwing.

"Skyquake, hit him from underneath!" Dreadwing ordered his brother as he flew over Springer and nosedived straight toward him. Skyquake, the green flyer, did as he was told, diving toward the ground and then pulling up to fly at Springer.

Both Cons flew at Springer at high speeds and they fired a missile simultaneously. Seeing no way to dodge both the Cons and the missiles, Springer transformed and combined his helicopter blades into one long broadsword that he used to cut through the missiles in a single strike. However, the femme slammed into him with her jet mode and slammed him into the ground, dragging him through the dirt and rock while still flying.

"Get off me!" Springer took out a dagger and stabbed it right into the femme's nose, making her cry out and instinctively transform to bipedal mode. They rolled across the ground punching each other before the femme kicked him off and he fell on his back.

Skyquake also transformed and descended upon Springer, who jumped away just as the large Con hit the ground. He took out his sword and twin plasma cannon and glared at the two Cons surrounding him.

"Two against one," Springer huffed. "Not much of a fair fight."

"Compared to what you do for a living, I'd think this is exactly how you'd want it, Autobot." Dreadwing landed in front of him and drew his sword from his back, raising it to Springer.

"Fighting for your life in the middle of a desert on a backwater world, far from any reinforcements." Skyquake growled. "A fitting end for a cur like you!"

"You must be a precog, Skyquake." Springer said, smirking. "Didn't expect for you to choose your own burial site."

Dreadwing charged at Springer and swung his sword at his head. Springer deflected the blade with his sword, but hissed when Nova Storm came at up with two spinning saws, one of them glancing off his left arm before he kicked her away. He spun around and sliced into Dreadwing's side before collapsing into his second alt mode, an armored car with a turret on top. He sped back in reverse as Skyquake opened fire on him with a large artillery cannon that fired over a hundred armor piercing arounds a minute.

"If you think I'm going to die to a bunch of scrubs like you, then you three aren't as smart as I thought you were!" Springer yelled over the sound of his turret firing nonstop. He managed to hit Skyquake in the face before Dreadwing pulled him back behind an old gas station and shot back at him. Nova Storm went in a different direction to draw his fire away from them. "That's right, come and get so-"

A pulse blast slammed into the side of his alt mode and blasted him off his wheels. Springer transformed and got to his feet, groaning at the smoking blast mark on his chest. "What the hell?"

Rolling from the crashed ship was an olive green and maroon cybertronian tank that transformed into a large, heavily armored mech with a metal patch covering his left eye. The Decepticon named Demolishor pointed his hands at Springer and his fingers converted into laser cannons that shot rapid fire laser blasts at the Autobot.

"For Primus' sake, where's my help?" Springer shouted.

As if the gods heard his curses, a ground bridge appeared in the middle of the battlefield and Optimus charged out of the portal with a small number of his Autobots, one of them being an old friend Springer knew very well.

"Springer!" Bulkhead exclaimed, grinning at his old friend. Springer smiled at his former subordinate.

"Hey, Bulk." He said. "Nice night for a firefight, huh?"

Dreadwing, Skyquake and Nova Storm fought back as hard as they could, but the odds were now against them. Demolishor ran over to them and proposed that they cut their losses before they suffered casualties.

"We need to contact the command bunker." Demolishor said. "We're outnumbered and outgunned."

"But what about the ship? We can't let the Autobots have it." Skyquake said.

"If you want to fight past Optimus Prime, be my guest." Demolishor replied. Skyquake growled, but a look from Dreadwing held him back.

"I already have that covered. Right now, we must transform and retreat." Dreadwing said.

The three Decepticons transformed and flew/drove away from the Autobots, but Springer wasn't about to let them leave.

"You're not going anywhere!" Springer transformed to his helicopter mode and flew after them, ignoring Bulkhead calling for him.

"Springer, wait!" Bulkhead exclaimed.

As he flew away, Dreadwing remotely activated the ship's self-destruct system, and the vessel exploded Just as Springer flew over it, blasting him away with flames and smoke. He wavered in the air for a moment before lowering to the ground and returning to bipedal mode.

"Those fragheads would rig the ship to blow. They always do that!" Springer growled.

"Springer, were those Seekers?" Bulkhead asked.

"Yeah, they are. Tough bastards to fight, too." Springer said. "We gotta hurry and follow them before we lose their trail."

He made for his crashed ship, but stopped in his tracks when Optimus stepped in front of him. Springer, for all his impulsiveness, managed to restrain the common urge to push past his commander. Because you don't just push past Optimus Prime.

"Springer, we have more pressing concerns at the moment," Optimus said in a tone that left no argument. "Such as removing evidence of our battle before the human authorities come to investigate."

Springer scowled, but nodded, knowing that protocol took precedence over all. As the Autobots got to work on putting out the inferno, Springer looked over at Arcee, who had come along with them. She glared at him vehemently before turning away in a huff.

'I can see I'm going to have a great time on this god forsaken planet.' Springer thought with a frown.

XXXXXX

Once things settled down, the Autobots returned to the Ark, where Springer was taken to Ratchet to have his wounds treated.

"Ow," Springer hissed, glaring at Ratchet." Easy, doc. I need that arm."

"Hold still and you won't lose it." Ratchet said and returned to welding the gash on Springer's arm. Springer shook his head and turned to Optimus.

"Look, Prime, apologies for the fireworks and all, but I've been chasing those four through nearly two dozen star systems before tracking them to this rock." He said.

"Who were they?" Arcee asked. "I don't recognize the flyers."

"You already know Demolishor, the famous general from Polyhex. The twins are Dreadwing and Skyquake, two more Seekers from Slipstream's personal squadron."

"Okay, so they're high profile targets." Bulkhead said. "Doesn't explain why you're chasing them. You're not one to go solo like that."

"You're right, Bulk. But those bastards were worth the trouble." Springer's face darkened. "Those two led an attack that torched a small Wrecker training facility near the rear lines. Almost everyone died in the assault, including Sea Star."

"Sea Star?" Bulkhead gaped at Springer. Sea Star was a veteran Wrecker who headed naval operations for the Wreckers. He was the mech who helped Bulkhead get inducted into the team; he taught him the ropes, gave him the hellish but necessary training to survive the unholy operations the Wreckers went on. To hear that he's dead…it was unthinkable.

"I know, I feel the same way, Bulk. Which is why I need to hunt those bastards down and pay them back in kind." Springer tried to get up, but Optimus pushed him back.

"Springer, do not let your emotions cloud your training." Optimus said. "If you want to leave this ship, then you must attain a Terran vehicle mode for disguise."

"Or modes, in your case." Ratchet said.

"And that spaceship of yours? Not Terran." Prowl frowned. "We had to jump through some big hoops to get that thing hauled out of plain sight right next to a burning ship."

"Don't worry, Prowl, I won't give you too much paperwork to sift through." Springer said uncaringly. "Besides, I don't plan on staying here for that long."

"That's a shocker." Arcee muttered.

"I plan on snuffing out those twins, then I'll be on my merry way."

"Springer, I doubt finding Dreadwing and Skyquake will be possible now. If they are here, then that means that they plan on joining their master in this fight on Terra." Optimus said.

Springer sighed and nodded.

"Megatron."

XXXXXX

On Decepticon Island, Dreadwing, Skyquake, and Demolishor stood at attention before Nightshade inside the command center of the command bunker.

"Of all the things to find, I wasn't expecting you four." Nightshade said.

"Shockwave informed us that you were meeting heavy Autobot resistance on this planet, so he sent us to assist you, ma'am." Demolishor said. "Forgive us for not announcing our arrival sooner."

"It's okay, Demolishor. Things have been…hectic, to say the least." Nightshade sighed. "It's good to have some much needed reinforcements here."

"Lieutenant, if you don't mind me asking, where is Lord Megatron?" Dreadwing asked. "I would've thought he would be here too."

Nightshade scowled. "There was a serious battle with the Autobots that led to Megatron suffering from severe wounds. I'm taking command until he can recover."

The three newcomers were surprised by this news, and looking at the state of the bunker and the Nemesis, they thought that the Autobots had a hand in the damages as well. Nightshade swiftly put an end to that thought.

"No, the Autobots didn't cause this. What you see here was done by something just as worse." Nightshade said. "I'll inform you of that little nugget of slag later."

"Nightshade, if I may," Dreadwing stepped forward. "Allow us to bring retribution upon the Autobots for you. A swift strike to them will bring the Autobots to their knees as payment for putting our leader in such a state."

Nightshade was anything but impressed at his vow. "I have no doubt in your skills, Dreadwing, but Optimus Prime is not so easy to beat as a Wrecker."

"Yes, but-"

"Dreadwing!" She cut him off firmly. Seeing him go silent, she said, "I admire your dedication to Megatron, but on this planet, you follow my command. Conflicting agendas will only make our operations on this world harder than it already is."

"I understand, Nightshade." Dreadwing bowed his head.

"As for the rest of you, rest up and recharge. You will be fully debriefed on the state of operations on this world later on." Nightshade said to the others. "Dismissed."

"Yes, ma'am!"

XXXXXX

"Springer!"

The Wrecker commander grunted as Moonracer slammed into him and hugged him tightly. He chuckled and patted her on the back. "Hey, squirt, how's life on this rock doing for ya?"

"It's great! Living in the Ark is sweet! I get my own room and I can finally sleep without worrying about Insecticons all the time!" Moonracer smiled. "Not counting the Decepticons, murderous humans and eldritch horrors, this planet is pretty cool."

"I'll…take your word for it." Springer said. He was briefed on the situation on this planet by Bulkhead and he didn't envy these guys one bit after all the scrap they went through in a single stellar cycle. He saw Arcee walked down the hallway and smiled. "Hey, Moonracer, I'll talk to you later, okay?"

Moonracer nodded. "Okay, just don't run into Prowl or he'll saddle you with inventory duty!"

"Wouldn't dream of it."

Moonracer giggled and skipped away, leaving Springer alone with Arcee. When she didn't slow down for him, he jogged up to her and got in her path.

"Arcee!" Springer smiled, though it felt forced on him. He tried to act normal, but her frosty glare nearly killed his momentum. "I, uh, didn't catch your earlier."

"Gee, I wonder why?" She sneered, making him wince. Having a venomous Arcee glaring at you wasn't easy to deal with.

"I…missed you. You know, when you and your, um…"

"Friend, Gina is a friend." Arcee said. "And how nice of you to actually give a damn about me after all this time."

"For the record, you gave me the silent treatment after all those cycles." Springer pointed out and sighed. "Look, Cee, if this is about what happened at Iacon, I'm sorry. My head wasn't in the right place and I wasn't in my right mind. My priorities weren't straight."

"Your priorities? What priorities?" She yelled. "Trying to slag Ultra Magnus because he stole your job? When you should've been helping me when I just watched my sister get murdered before my eyes?!"

Springer winced at the hostile tone she threw at him. She wasn't wrong, but it still hurt to hear her say it, especially with that hateful expression.

"If you're trying to make up for lost time, don't bother. You had your chance, and you blew it. So do us all a favor and go back to your precious Wreckers!"

Arcee pushed him aside and marched down the hall, leaving the Wrecker alone and feeling hollower than he had ever been in his career.

XXXXXX

Later that night, Springer sat on a small cliff in the forest surrounding the lava fields. His earlier good mood after meeting Bulkhead was killed and his mind was still on his one-sided conversation with Arcee. She was normally a sweet and kind femme but when he came into the picture she became a completely different person who wanted nothing to do with him…and he couldn't blame her.

Springer and Arcee were close, as in very close. When Arcee and Flamewar's relationship began to wane as the war spread across Cybertron's eastern hemisphere, she became close to Springer, who was her confidant in matters of the heart. They probably would have been lovers had two things not happened: the sacking of Praxus, which led to Springer helping form the guerilla warfare group that would become the Wreckers, and Arcee watching Moonracer die. As it was, him going out on suicide missions didn't help their relationship at all, and as these missions required him being gone for long periods of time, he had no idea Moonracer was dead until a month later.

The last time they walked was when Arcee said that she didn't want to hear, see or think about him ever again, calling him a coward in full view of his troops and leaving him in the middle of an acid rain storm. He could count the number of times he had been shot, sliced and nearly dismembered on both hands, but even now what she said still cut deep.

'I bet Kup is saying I told you so back at Orbital Command.' Springer thought and sighed.

"Springer?"

It was Bulkhead. The big Autobot was trudging through the forest looking for him. Springer smiled and wave him over. "Over here, Bulk!"

"Springer," Bulkhead grinned at his former commander. "How are you feeling?"

"Good as new. It was just a mesh wound but nothing the doc couldn't handle." Springer replied. "I'll feel better when I mount Dreadwing and Skyquake's head to the wall."

Bulkhead frowned. "Springer, I know you want payback for those cadets, but Optimus said-"

"I know what Optimus said…and I don't care." Springer scowled. "Bulkhead, what happened to you? Back on Cybertron, you would've jumped at the chance to slag anyone that messed with our boys."

"And I still would, but its Optimus' call to make, not ours." Bulkhead said.

"What, did fighting with Prime make you soft like him too?"

"Don't talk about Optimus like that! He never does things without a reason, and he would never do it if it meant endangering our lives." Bulkhead growled. Friend or not, no one disrespected Optimus in front of him. "Don't rat on him because you got ousted by Ultra Magnus."

Springer growled at Bulkhead. "Don't you ever-"

Before the argument could heat up, Springer's comm chimed and an unexpected caller answered him.

" _Springer! I know you're still out there!"_ Dreadwing said. _"If you want to finish our fight, then join me at these coordinates. I want to see if you're better than those so-called Wreckers who died without dignity."_

"You're gonna regret saying that, fraghead." Springer said and marched toward his ship. "You coming, Bulk?"

"Dreadwing rarely goes anywhere without his brother, and two against one isn't a fair fight. Figured you'd want to even the odds," Springer smirked. "Like old times."

Bulkhead wanted to go along, to fight alongside Springer like they did back in their hay-day, but that was back when he little else to live for other than smashing stuff and bashing heads. "But, shouldn't we wait for back up?"

"You know our motto, Bulk," Springer said. "Wreckers don't call for back up…"

"They call for clean up!" Bulkhead finished with a smile. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all. It really would be just like old times.

XXXXXX

Dreadwing's coordinates led the pair far from any inhabited area, deep inside a forest near a valley. There was little driving room and the trees were dense enough to make maneuvering through the air next to impossible. It the perfect spot that limited the capabilities of both sides to their bare essentials, their hands and weapons. Dreadwing had a funny way of equalizing the playing field while also playing to his own advantages.

Springer set the Jackhammer down in a clearing and left the ship with Bulkhead. They met up with Skyquake at the edge of the valley, and he was alone, standing there looking bored and slightly impatient.

"Skyquake!" Springer yelled, drawing his sword and pointed it at the Seeker. "Where's your brother?"

"He'll be with us in a moment. Dreadwing has better things to do than come at the beck and call of inferior warriors." Skyquake droned, slamming a fist into his palm. "But I doubt that either of you will live long enough till then!"

Skyquake pulled out a large cannon from his back and fired a barrage of anti-armor rounds from it. Springer and Bulkhead split up, Bulkhead shooting his blaster while Springer charged at the Con.

Springer lunged at Skyquake and slashed at his head, but Skyquake leaned back and slammed his cannon into the mech's side. Bulkhead charged at him from behind and smashed his wrecking ball into the back of Skyquake's head, staggering him. Skyquake growled and fired his cannon on Bulkhead, riddling the large Autobot with heavy bullets that left dents in his thick armor.

A quick attack from Springer's sword dug into the cannon's barrel and allowed him to leap up and punch Skyquake in the face. He then ducked under Skyquake's flailing arm and slashed at his right underside before Bulkhead rushed in and hit Skyquake again with his wrecking ball. Seeing that he wasn't doing much fighting them both, Skyquake decided on another approach.

Elbowing Bulkhead in the face, Skyquake transformed into his emerald green jet mode and angled his thrusters at Bulkhead's face. Firing his jets at full power, he doused Bulkhead's front in white hot flames as he took to the air, blinding the Autobot.

"Ah!" Bulkhead cried, his face searing in agony and badly burnt.

"Bulkhead!" Springer ran over to his friend, but two missiles hit the ground near them and blasted them back. It was Skyquake, who was flying low to drop missiles down on the Autobots. Another missile strike from them pushed the pair toward the cliff…where Dreadwing was waiting for them.

"Nothing personal, Springer. I just have business with your leader." Dreadwing said as he pressed a button on his remote detonator and detonated the bombs he planted along the side of the valley Springer and Bulkhead were standing on.

Springer cursed as he and Bulkhead were taken down along the landslide caused by the exploding bombs. He had no time to transform to his aerial mode as he lost sight of Bulkhead in the rubble and his vision was clouded by dust and rocks.

XXXXXX

"Optimus, I found Bulkhead." Ratchet reported. He showed Prime the coordinates on the screen. "He's in a forest near the border."

"And I'm willing to bet that Springer is with him." Arcee growled. Without even asking for Optimus to take her along, she marched out of the room toward the ground bridge.

Ratchet shook his head and muttered, "I don't envy Springer's position right now."

Optimus narrowed his eyes. Apparently Springer needed to be reminded of who was in charge on this planet.

XXXXXX

Springer grunted as he tried pushing the huge rocks off his legs. He was pinned and couldn't get any leverage with just his arms to dig himself free. "Damn it…"

He was fortunate when someone started lifting the rocks off him one by one and he coughed up a bit of dust. "W-What took you so long, Bulk? Don't tell me all that time you spent with Prime has made you…" He trailed off when he saw that it was indeed Optimus who freed him, and Arcee stood behind her commander, neither Autobot looking very happy with him. "Soft."

Optimus took Springer's hand and pulled him out of the rubble, lifting him to his feet effortlessly. Once Springer was back on his feet, Optimus wasted no time in showing his displeasure.

"Going off on your own is one thing, Springer," Optimus said, eyes narrowed and his voice hard as steel. "But when you put another member of my team in danger…"

"With all due respect, sir, Bulkhead knew the risks when he came along. All Wreckers know what they're getting into." Springer replied.

"Except Bulkhead's not a Wrecker, he's one of us!" Arcee hissed, stomping up to stare Springer down face to face. "Bulkhead is a member of our team. He's not one of your ready to order soldiers in your suicide squad! You had no right to drag Bulkhead into this mess and put him in danger!"

"Bulkhead's fine, Arcee." Springer said and turned back to the rubble behind him. "He's probably buried somewhere in the rubble."

" _Optimus, Arcee,"_ Ratchet called over the comm. _"I have a fix on Bulkhead's location. He's 500 kliks from your location."_

Springer frowned and shifted into his helicopter mode, hovering back up to the cliff where his ship was. "We can take the Jackhammer and get there in record time. You two coming?"

Optimus and Arcee glanced at each other before following the Wrecker back up the slope. Grilling Springer will have to wait, getting Bulkhead back took top priority.

XXXXXX

The Jackhammer was a personal spacecraft that was meant to only hold a small number of passengers. It wasn't a small ship by any means, but for a big mech like Optimus, it was a little cramped sitting next to Springer at the front. He would've given it to Arcee, but she hung back away from Springer, not wanting to anywhere near him for the duration of the flight. Springer didn't say anything, wisely keeping his mouth shut as he flew the ship.

Optimus knew that there was something between the two, but he didn't bother asking earlier. He made an effort not to pry into the lives of his teammates unless the situation called for it. Unlike Prowl, he knew there were personal boundaries that needed to be respected above all else. But he needed to know if this little lovers spat between them was going to interfere with the mission.

"So," Optimus began. "You and Arcee must share quite a history."

"You have no idea." Springer said, still looking ahead. He sighed as he thought back to when things were so much simpler than the scrap that was going on now. "Arcee and I…we weren't exactly a couple, though there was something there. Things between her and Flamewar were a bit strained when the war could still be classified as a revolution. When the fighting got worse, I joined the Wreckers with Impactor before the group even had a name, taking out Cons on their own turf or picking off stragglers near the state borders. It wasn't something I wanted Arcee to get involved in, so I kept it secret from her."

"Together with Impactor and Hyperion, we made the Wreckers into what it was now. We made it into a team that did what people refused to do. We were basically scavengers just taking the jobs no one wanted." Springer continued. "Soldiers like Bulkhead, Wheeljack and Sandstorm joined up and I grew close to these guys. They were like family and I couldn't leave them. The deeper I got, the farther Arcee and I grew apart, till it got to the point where we barely talked to each other. Then the whole scrap with you appointing Magnus as commander after Hyperion kicked the can and I was focused more on keeping that pencil pusher from turning the Wreckers into the Elite Guard. At that point, Arcee and Moonracer were ambushed by Flamewar and…"

Optimus nodded. The less said about that, the better.

"I let my work get in the way of my feelings and I wasn't there when she needed me the most. It stings even more since I didn't even know about Moonracer's death until long after it happened. I've never felt like such a failure before than I did at that moment." Springer shook his head. "Prime, despite what happened tonight, I do care about Bulkhead. He's a great soldier and an even greater friend…if anything happens to him, feel free to issue any punishment you see fit. I deserve nothing less."

"We'll cross that bridge when we get there, Springer. For now, let's focus on saving our friend." Optimus said.

Springer glanced at Optimus and nodded. Their mutual friend. He forgot how good it felt to be included in something bigger than the Wreckers. 'I'm not letting anyone else down tonight. I failed Arcee, but I'm not failing Bulk. That's a promise.'

XXXXXX

The coordinates led them to the port of a small town by the sea. It was early morning, so there weren't any humans there, but they needed to act fast before the first ships rolled into the harbor. Springer set the Jackhammer down and the trio exited the ship, where they entered the large maze of shipping containers in search of Bulkhead.

"Bulkhead!" Springer called out. "Come on, ya big lug, where are you?"

"I have a lock on his signal." Arcee said, eyes on her scanner. She took point and led Prime and Springer through the containers.

Bulkhead wasn't too far from their position. Just a few turns and they found him strapped to a container with magna-cuffs around his wrists…and a star-shaped bomb stuck to his chest and on a timer.

"Hey guys." Bulkhead gulped. He was mostly intact, though his face still sported some burns he suffered from Skyquake's earlier assault. "Guess we're all having a bad day today, huh?"

"Oh scrap." Springer cursed.

"What did they do to you?" Arcee asked as she ran over to her friend.

"Planted a bomb on him, that's what." Springer studied the device. "And a nasty one at that. It's a proximity bomb, designed to take out not only the target, but also those around him. Dreadwing likes to throw these around, so watch your step."

"Can you stop the countdown?" Optimus asked.

"If I take my time, maybe." He answered. "Hey, Prime, do you-Prime?"

Springer looked up and saw that Optimus was gone. Arcee and Bulkhead didn't see him go either, preoccupied with the bomb that was still counting down. Arcee decided to focus on the task at hand and turned back to Springer.

"Let's focus on that bomb." Arcee said. "We need to diffuse it before we all go up in smoke, along with half the harbor."

"You'll never get the chance, Autobot!" Skyquake descended from the sky and landed in bipedal mode, pointing his artillery cannon at the Autobots. "Dreadwing's bombs are next to impossible to diffuse without his guidance. He's played this game long enough to give even explosives experts a run for their money."

"Well he never went up against people who know how to play the game!" Arcee charged at Skyquake and transformed to her alt mode, slamming into the Seeker and pushing back to give Springer some time. She just hoped that Optimus was somewhere formulating a plan because time was not on their side.

XXXXXX

Nightshade was livid. Soundwave just informed her that Dreadwing and Skyquake had directly disobeyed her orders and gone off to fight the Autobots alone-to fight Optimus Prime no less! She didn't waste a second in contacting them and voicing her outrage at this blatant disregard for authority from Decepticons who were supposedly as loyal as they came.

"Ma'am, I can go and retrieve them with the others at your command." Nova Storm said, but Nightshade waved her off.

"No, I want them to hear it straight from me." Nightshade said as she walked into the command center. "Soundwave, patch me through to them."

"Yes, Nightshade."

Soundwave patched the bunker through to the twins' comm-units and Nightshade made sure they heard her speak. "Dreadwing, Skyquake! Answer me, damn you!"

It wasn't long before Dreadwing answered his comm, knowing full well his pissed off she was.

" _My lady, I-"_

What the frag do you think you're doing? Who told you to go off and fight the Autobots without my permission?" She shouted.

" _N-Nightshade, we are simply doing this as retribution for Lord Megatron."_ Dreadwing explained, his normally calm demeanor shaken by her rare anger. " _Please, allow us to snuff out Prime's Spark for our master."_

Nightshade snorted. "Optimus isn't so easily defeated, as I keep trying to tell you fools that! But if you insist, I'll let you continue, provided you get results."

" _Thank you, my lady."_

Dreadwing signed off and Nightshade sighed. "I bet 20 shanix that neither of them make it back alive."

"30 shanix that they return with nothing." Soundwave said.

"23!" Rumble yelled.

"43 that Skyquake loses an arm!" Frenzy grinned.

XXXXXX

Dreadwing shut off his comm and took a deep breath. He barely got off scott free and now he was pressured to show some results in this reckless act of vengeance on his part. Now he really had to kill Prime or his head would be taken instead. The only problem was that he lost sight of Optimus from his vantage point atop one of the crates.

"Springer, just forget about me and get as far away as possible. You're no bomb expert!" Bulkhead yelled.

"I didn't leave you on Pova and I'm not going to leave you now!" Springer said strongly. Despite his outward confidence, on the inside, he was starting to panic. He had no idea what he was doing and didn't want to make a move out of fear of rushing the clock.

"Springer, please…"

"Not listening, Bulk." He replied.

"Dreadwing!" Optimus's voice bellowed in the shipyard. "I know that you and your brother are warriors who value honor above all else. I implore you to leave. Give up this senseless violence and-"

"Silence! How dare you try to urge me to betray our comrades, our cause!" Dreadwing yelled. "We will never betray our leader!"

Down below, Arcee and Skyquake were still fighting. She quickly closed the distance between them and used her swords to slash into the cannon, disabling it and leaving two burning gashes in his chest. Skyquake growled and swung his massive fists, hitting Arcee into a container, but she recovered and flipped over his head when he charged at her. He spun around and his forearm split apart to reveal a blade, which nearly cut her head in two.

Seeing that she was only serving as a distraction for Springer, Dreadwing put his talk with Prime on hold and jumped down to the ground. Drawing his sword, he slashed at Arcee, forcing her back and stood before his brother.

"Go take care of the Wrecker. The bomb will go off any minute now."

"Yes, brother." Skyquake said and ran back to where he trapped Bulkhead.

Arcee hoped Springer was close to freeing Bulkhead, because his time frame just got smaller. She faced Dreadwing and spun her swords around. "This should be good. I hope you aren't as bad a fighter as your brother with that pipe you call a sword."

"Talk is cheap, Autobot." Dreadwing replied and got into a stance. "Shut up and fight me!"

Arcee was happy to oblige. She leapt forward and attacked, slashing at his head. Dreadwing deflected her strike and spun his sword around his body, smacking away her blades and rushing in. Arcee quickly learned that Dreadwing was painfully adept at his sword as he displayed a sort of brutal grace while attacking her. They weaved around each other, attacking and deflecting, though Dreadwing's larger size provided a slight advantage for him.

Arcee grunted when Dreadwing kicked her back and her eyes widened when he tossed a bomb at her. "Scrap!"

The bomb exploded just as she jumped back over a container, blasting apart a nearby container and sending pieces of burning metal flying everywhere. The blast wave blasted her into the side of another container and she crumped to the ground. She groaned but jumped back when Dreadwing fired a laser blast at her.

"I heard stories of your agility ad swiftness. Were they just that-stories?" Dreadwing taunted.

"I could say the same about Seekers being the greatest flyers on Cybertron. Considering how few of you there are left, I think those are just stories as well." Arcee retorted.

Dreadwing growled and switched the ammo on his cannon to plasma charges and began shooting plasma bursts at Arcee. She ran behind cover as he littered the harbor with devastating energy blasts that blew up more shipping containers and sent many flying everywhere.

"Skyquake, what's the status on Springer?" Dreadwing asked his brother. He paused in his shooting when he heard no reply from his brother. "Skyquake, answer me."

"Dreadwing!" Optimus called out again. "I know your actions are in response to what I did to Megatron. As such, your quarrel is with me, not my subordinates. Disable the bomb and lay down your arms so we can end this."

"You must be a fool if you think I'll do such a thing for you!" Dreadwing snarled.

"Then if you won't do it for me or yourself, perhaps you'll do it for your brother."

Dreadwing's eyes widened and he abandoned his fight against Arcee to run over to where he sent Skyquake. Barreling through a crate, he saw Springer and Optimus Prime along with his brother, who was lying on the ground covered in bleeding wounds and burns. Optimus had a foot on his chest and his ion rifle pointed at his face.

"I'm only going to tell you this one last time." Optimus said in a hard, steely tone. "Release Bulkhead and disable the bomb."

"I'm not afraid of you!" Dreadwing sneered. "I'll gladly sacrifice myself for my master!"

"But are you willing to risk your life and that of your brother's?"

Dreadwing gritted his teeth, knowing that he was at a disadvantage here. He could tell from Prime's tone that he wasn't bluffing. There were all going to die together if nothing was done. There was no way he could fight off three Autobots by himself and get Skyquake free in time.

"Fine." Dreadwing spat. "You win, Prime."

XXXXXX

"So in the end, Prime walks away and you come running back with your tail between your legs." Nightshade said, shaking her head. Before her stood a humbled and quiet Dreadwing and Skyquake, who just got out of the CR chamber. "Not only did you disobey me, but you almost lost your brother, Dreadwing. That's quite the failure."

"Please, Nightshade, I understand my folly…and the price is almost cost me." Dreadwing said, not looking her in the eyes. "We live to serve you and Lord Megatron. We will gladly accept any punishment you wish to deal to us."

"Prime turning the tables on your is punishment enough, just remember how things run around here." She said and nodded. "You're dismissed."

The twins saluted and left the room, passing by Knockout as he looked at them curiously.

"You didn't give them a beat down?" He asked.

"Sometimes your enemy can dish out a better punishment than anything you can do. This will teach them not to go solo like that again." Nightshade said. "Any updates?"

"Nothing much, I'm afraid. Megatron is still in stasis. His body's recovering at a steady rate, but whatever Prime did had severely weakened his systems before the explosion. I'm going to have to do extensive surgery to repair his neural net to make sure it heals properly. With our CR chambers at a critical low, along with our power supply, his recovery is going to take time." Knockout explained. "On another note, Starscream and Soundwave say that construction of the secondary bunker is going swell. It should be operational within a few days."

"Good, he sooner Megatron has the resources to recover, the better." She said.

Finally, things were looking up for them.

XXXXXX

A few hours after the rescue mission, Optimus, Arcee and Bulkhead were seeing Springer off at his ship a little ways off from the Ark. The ship looked brand new thanks to Wheeljack's quick repairs on it (though Springer double checked to make sure Wheeljack didn't add anything that might go boom the second he was in orbit).

"Well, as fun as this was, I got to go. Can't stay away from the team for too long before Guzzle and Whirl find a way to blow up our base…again." Springer said and shook Prime's hand. "Look, Prime, sorry about giving you such a hard time earlier. I've been carrying a lot of unneeded baggage that I just couldn't get rid of."

"No need to apologize, Springer." Optimus said. "Just know that though few show it, we are thankful for everything the Wreckers do. The price you all pay for your service is more than anything most of us can imagine."

"Thanks, Prime. And I wish you luck on this rock too. You're gonna need it." Springer smiled and turned to Bulkhead. They bumped fists and had a short hut. "Good to see you again, Bulk, and sorry about almost getting you blown up."

"Eh," Bulkhead shrugged. "Not the craziest thing to happen to me on this planet. Tell Kup and Leadfoot I said hi."

"Will do." Springer nodded and finally turned to the last person he cared for on the team. Arcee didn't give him her usual scathing glare, but her gaze was still cold as a glacier. "So…"

"So…" She echoed.

Springer sighed and said the first thing that came to his mind. "Arcee, I don't expect you to forgive me right away, and I don't blame you for saying every hurtful thing in the book to me. But with how this war is going, and the slag you just recently went through with Flamewar, I don't want things to be frosty between us forever. I've got a lot of regrets on my conscious, and not fixing things with you was one of them. So, for both our sakes, I want to be friends again. To have something between us that's not some passive aggressive scrap."

Arcee stared at him long and hard, her expression hard to read. She sighed, seemingly having made a decision, and looked up at him. "You do realize I'm still mad at you, right?"

Springer nodded. "I do."

"And you realize that forgiving you will take a long time, right?"

He nodded again. "I do."

"And that a few kind words won't fix everything?"

"I know."

Arcee regarded him a few seconds longer before a tiny, very tiny, smile spread across her lips. "Well…it's a good thing I don't hold grudges forever."

Springer smiled and opened his mouth, but she stopped him before he could speak. "I never said all is well. I meant that I'll consider it. You're right, we shouldn't have this hanging over us with the war getting nastier every day. For now, you're in the doghouse…so to speak."

"I have no idea what a doghouse is, but that's more than enough for me." Springer said and held out his hand. "Until next time, Arcee."

"Likewise, Springer." Arcee said, shaking his hand.

They held hands a bit longer than needed, and they were even slower parting ways. As she watched him board the ship, she realized how lonely she felt without hearing his usual banter and bravado that would make her laugh. She was still mad at him for a lot of things, but she was glad that, on some level, they were repairing old wounds.

Watching the Jackhammer disappear into the morning sky, Bulkhead turned to Arcee and saw her frowning. "Don't tell me you're still mad at Springer."

"Bulkhead, I'm always mad at him." Arcee replied coyly. She was going to make Springer fight tooth and nail for her forgiveness and she was going to enjoy every minute of it.


	9. Grudge Match

Chapter 9-Grudge Match

"Nightshade, may I have a word with you?"

Nightshade looked up from her datapad at Flamewar as the femme walked into the Nemesis' bridge. "What is it?"

"Forgive me for interrupting your work, but I would like to talk to you about the mobilization of an underutilized asset." Flamewar said.

"And that is?"

"Me." Flamewar said with her infuriating smirk. "It's just that I haven't been assigned to any missions lately and its getting a bit…stuffy, on this island. I would like to have a more active role, since we're still low on supplies and energy."

"I'll be sure to get you in on the action more in the future, Flamewar." Nightshade told her. Flamewar smiled and nodded.

"You are a gracious leader." She said smoothly and walked to the door, greeting Soundwave as she passed him.

Once Flamewar was well out of earshot, Nightshade put her datapad down and turned to Soundwave. "Remind me of her trustworthiness, Soundwave."

Soundwave replayed a recording he acquired from Laserbeak. _"What I'm trying to say is that we should join forces. With my cunning and your leadership capabilities, we can easily ditch Bots and Con alike and rule this planet by ourselves. What do you say?"_

The recording ended and Nightshade walked over to the communications center and pressed a button to open a connection to one of her troops' quarters. The recipient appeared on the monitor and stood at attention the second he noticed her presence.

" _Ma'am, is something wrong?"_ Dreadwing asked.

"Nothing that's requires your immediate concern. I just wanted you to know that I have a little task for you." Nightshade said. "One that involves the extermination of a certain huntress."

XXXXXX

Flamewar should've been pleased. Nightshade had apparently taken her request to heart and assigned her on the first mission she could find. The downside was that she was saddled with Barricade and Dreadwing. The mission should've been simple enough, but something didn't feel right. Why send two heavy hitters with her on a recon mission?

And the location wasn't very comfy either; a dark forest with thin, gnarled trees and little room to properly move around in their alt modes. It was the middle of the night, and the half-moon above barely provided any light for suitable visibility, not that they needed much help since they could just switch their optical sensors to night vision. The setting was reminiscent of the times when she would travel through forests on alien worlds, using the cover of night to make her move, killing her prey quickly and quietly, no witnesses. Those were the days…but no one said that those days were over for her.

The deeper they got into the forest, the more agitated she got, and she knew something was amiss. She was being targeted, probably by the two mechs accompanying her. Nightshade was behind this, Flamewar wouldn't put it past that bird bitch to try to slag her discreetly. Still, it would do her good to see if this was a hit and not an honest case of her paranoia going out of control. Good thing she was adept at reading people's expressions, searching for fear in her prey's faces was always a joy.

"Far be it for me to understand Nightshade's thought process," Flamewar said. "But doesn't this seem a little overkill on her part? I mean, sending two of her best operatives to investigate on unconfirmed energon spike."

"Nightshade knows that Dreadwing and I will get the job done." Barricade said haughtily.

"I was talking about Dreadwing and myself." Flamewar smirked. Barricade bristled and marched toward her, but Dreadwing held him back.

"Calm yourself, Barricade. We are on a mission." Dreadwing said, glaring at Flamewar. "This must be a unified effort if we're to complete it."

In her line of work, Flamewar had learned the telltale signs of a warrior hidden in plain sight. Though they try to hide it, seasoned warriors and soldiers always had a certain air about them and gave tiny signs that betrayed their combat experience. Dreadwing was no different. Flamewar could see his shoulders were tense and his feet were marginally widening apart to maintain his center of balance. He was getting into a battle stance, getting reading to fight. Fight what, she didn't know.

Then she saw Barricade trade a glance with him and settle down, and she knew that it was her they were leading along. She was targeted for extermination.

'Fine then.' Flamewar thought. 'I'm in the mood to kill someone.'

"Yes, Barricade, do be a good boy and sniff out that energon for us. Maybe you'll actually be useful for something aside from being the Autobot scout's punching bag." She taunted.

"That's it!" Barricade roared and pushed Dreadwing aside to charge at Flamewar.

She smirked and ducked under his spinning gyro-blades before shooting a green energo-net at his face. The net wrapped around his head and blinded him, forcing him to his knees. With their cover blown, Dreadwing took out his cannon and fired laser blasts at her. She ran behind the trees to avoid his blasts and took out a grenade, tossing it in his direction. Dreadwing shot down the first one, but he wasn't expecting her to throw another grenade, a concussion bomb.

Few could take one of those to the face at close range and still have a head to think with, let alone walk around. Dreadwing was not one of those people. The bomb exploded in his face and the force wave blew him back into a tree, crashing through it head first before hitting the ground.

"That's one down." Flamewar said and shifted her arm into her blaster to finish him off, but a pair of sharp blades tore into her left shoulder and bicep. "Ah!"

Barricade pushed his attack, swinging his blades at her and forced her back. Wounded and lacking room to counter, Flamewar transformed and sped away through the trees. Barricade's back armor split apart to reveal two rocket launchers and shot two rockets at her. Flamewar dodged them both, but Barricade fired a third that caught her in the back wheel, blasting her off her wheels and into the foot of a hill.

Barricade didn't even stop to help Dreadwing as he pursued Flamewar, following the trail of energon she bled out. He followed the blood trail to a small hill, where he found the huntress in bipedal mode clutching her bleeding arm. Barricade grinned and spun his blades eagerly as he stalked towards her.

"This is going to be satisfying. You had this coming, you witch." He growled and raised his arm to cut her down and take her head to Nightshade.

But as he brought his arm down, it was caught in something sticky. Looking up, he saw that his arm was stuck in a thin but strong strand of webbing. He tried to pull his arm free but the webbing held him tight, though he was set free by an explosive arrow shooting into his elbow and blasting his arm off. He fell to his knees and held his smoking stump, then looked up to see Flamewar's smirking form shimmer and vanish. A hologram.

A shadow leapt from the trees, blades extended and a mad grin glinting in the moonlight as Flamewar descended on her prey.

The silence of the dark forest was broken by the echoing screams of Barricade.

XXXXXX

Major Klaus led his talos unit through the forest. His team consisted of four Codarls and a six-man infantry squad armed with anti-mecha weaponry. Their energon detectors placed around the forest had detected three energon signatures and were deployed to the area to apprehend the cybertronians at the site. Klaus hated midnight excursions in areas that were practically made for ambushes, but his superiors were adamant about acquiring this energon that their new alien buddy spoke so fondly of. As much as he hated dealing with aliens after losing so many soldiers to the others, he was still duty-bound to follow his commanders' orders.

The team came upon the site where what appeared to be a destructive battle had taken place. Klaus raised his talos' assault rifle and scanned the area.

"Mech team, form a perimeter around the area." He ordered. "Ground team, follow me."

They followed the path of destruction before them like a trail of breadcrumbs. His unit's scanners detected a trail of liquid energon on the ground and followed the trail to a clearing, where they found a…interesting discovery.

It was a corpse, if one could properly tell what used to be a body from the scattered remains of machine parts and severed limbs from the mess strewn about, along with glowing energon splattered all over the trees and ground. Only a single leg was still connected to the headless torso by a few wires. The major looked around and finally saw the head, which was sitting a fair distance away from the main body. He recognized the familiar face from the briefings on the Decepticons he got a few months ago.

It was the Decepticon known as Barricade.

XXXXXX

Flamewar once heard a human phrase when she traveled through one of their towns after the infamous "polarity" incident: From rags to riches. Looking at her current predicament, she could see how it described her situation perfectly, though in the opposite manner. From riches to rags, the story of a huntress with enemies on all sides.

'Honestly, I'm surprised it took them this long to make their move.' She thought. 'Nightshade should've done the job herself. Then maybe she wouldn't be a Con short.'

It felt good to have finally snuffed out one of those brainless bozos after having to endure their scrap for so long. They had it coming after forcing someone as dangerous as her to work for them. However, now she was facing a dilemma.

"I should've downloaded a map of our energon mines when no one was looking." Flamewar grumbled as she trudged through a cave, one of the few mines she could access in her current condition. Looking at her arm, she saw that she was still bleeding energon, which wasn't a good sign. Barricade's gyro-blades must have cut deeper than she thought. "Would've saved me the trouble of not starving."

She needed energon ASAP. Her repair systems would take care of the wound, but if she had more energy the regeneration process would be sped up, at least to the point where she wasn't bleeding everywhere. But the cave she was in was tapped out, and she wouldn't last long on scraps.

Flamewar pulled a tiny shard of energon from the wall and held it up, groaning when it crumbled to dust in her fingers. "Back to square one."

A loud hiss made her shift her blaster arm out and point it at the tunnel behind her. A large form stomped around the corner, and Flamewar gaped at the hulking form of the vaguely bipedal cybertronian that marched past her.

'An Insecticon?' Flamewar stared at the beast in shock. What was that thing doing on Terra of all places?

The Insecticon was a soldier, evident in its larger thirty foot bulk and black and purple armor. Its red visor glowed dangerously in the darkness, mandibles chittering away as it gauged whether she was a threat or not. Flamewar was smart enough not to attack it, knowing that it would kill her in a heartbeat. After a tense minute, the Insecticon turned away from her and marched down the tunnel. That was when Flamewar saw the cluster of energon in the creature's hand.

"Hey, where did you get that?" She called out. It ignored her and continued down the tunnel. "I'm talking to you, you stupid bug!"

Flamewar followed the Insecticon into another cave, trying to order it to stop. Frustrated, she decided to take a chance and took out her laser crossbow to shoot it in the back of the head. One clean shot should at least disable it.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

Flamewar froze. "Who said that?"

The Insecticon hissed and lowered its head in submission as Flamewar saw another person in the cave-a femme sitting on a pile of rocks like it was a throne. She was mostly dark purple and black in coloration, with a slender frame and a narrow head with two short curved horns atop her head with a pale face and bright segmented magenta eyes. On her back were six appendages that were long and sharp, looking like spider legs in their folded up position.

"Who the hell are you?" Flamewar asked.

The femme chuckled, her bright eyes shining with mirth as her purple lips pulled back to reveal sharp fangs. "I'm Airachnid, the queen of this castle. And you, my dear, are a Decepticon."

"Ex-Decepticon." Flamewar clarified.

"Whatever." Airachnid waved her comment off. "The point is that you are a Decepticon, and that makes you our enemy. Nothing personal, but you Cons have done my dirty in the past and I've been itching to vent my frustrations on you lot."

Flamewar's eyes widened when she saw Airachnid raise a hand and seemingly command the Insecticon to move on her. She stumbled back and raised her hands.

"Hold up! I'm in the same position as you!" She exclaimed. "The Cons just tried to knock me off just a few hours ago!"

Airachnid narrowed her eyes and mentally commanded her soldier to stand down. She leaned forward and said, "Do tell."

"I'm not sure if you know this, but Megatron's here leading an operation to conquer this planet, and Prime's team is on this planet too. They're both duking it out and just recently Prime slagged Megatron something else. That puts Nightshade in command and the first thing that skank did is try to have me killed with two mediocre soldiers."

"That explains the noise." Airachnid muttered. "I assume that's where you got that nasty wound of yours."

"Yeah," Flamewar nodded, and then smirked. "But you should see the other guy."

Airachnid simply smirked at her bravado.

"Now, I told you why I'm here, so maybe you can clarify why there's an Insecticon on this planet, which was supposed to have been uncharted." Flamewar said. "And why you're here as well."

"I'll give you the short version. I'm one of Shockwave's unwilling experiments, the latest in his attempts to merge Insecticon CNA with regular bots and the only one who survive. I don't exactly know anything else after he stuffed me in a stasis pod, but I woke up in a cave on this planet a few weeks ago."

That's roughly around the same time that Cardinal tried to annihilate the Cons. Flamewar knew that wasn't some coincidence. Those freaks did something to the planet when they awakened that threw everything out of whack. Things that were once sleeping within the earth were now awakening thanks to the Cardinals flexing their metaphysical muscles and it made this planet an even bigger nightmare than before.

"I found this big guy wandering these tunnels like a lost turbofox kit." Airachnid nodded to the Insecticon next to her. "Thanks to Shockwave's experiments, I can make this brute do whatever I want. It makes energon scouting easier."

"Hmm, if you were sent to Shockwave, then you must have done something to piss Megatron off. He likes to send people to that one eyed freak as punishment to people who don't cower in fear of his shadow." Flamewar snorted. She smiled and stepped forward. "It looks like we were both wronged by the Decepticons…or more accurately, Megatron."

Airachnid nodded. "It would seem so."

"What would you say if I granted you an opportunity to get your revenge on the big man himself?"

Airachnid hummed and leaned forward, tapping her chin with a sharp finger. "I'd say you'd better not be lying to me. Can you assure me Megatron's demise?"

"Bucket head is otherwise engaged, but we can sick your little soldier on the one he cares about most." Flamewar's grin was positively demonic by now. "Hit him where it hurts."

"And what's that?"

"The little glitch who hangs on his arm-Nightshade."

Airachnid stared at Flamewar before smiling coyly. "I think this is the birth of a very beautiful partnership."

XXXXXX

At the command bunker, Dreadwing stared down at his feet as a very angry Nightshade paced around him. He was just finished debriefing her on the horrendous mission that ended with another Decepticon down and the lieutenant wasn't happy about how things turned out at all.

"The reason we can't detect Barricade's biosignal is all too clear," Nightshade growled, stopping in front of him with a hard glare on her face. "But please explain to me how you can't find his remains?"

Dreadwing had no answer to that. He scoured the entire forest but he couldn't find any sign of Barricade's body. All that was left was a puddle of energon where his body had been. "Nightshade, I-"

"Nightshade," Soundwave called out. "Incoming transmission. Caller unknown."

Nightshade gave an annoyed sigh and waved a hand for Soundwave to patch it through. He pressed a button and allowed the message to play.

" _Hello, Nightshade."_ Flamewar's mocking voice said through the comm. _"How's Barricade? Did you mop him up yet?"_

"Trace the signal." Nightshade commanded Soundwave, who immediately got to work on it. Flamewar continued speaking.

" _I'm going to keep this short. You want to gut me for offing Barricade and I want to decapitate you for trying to snuff me out. So here's a compromise, I want you to come to me and finish this one on one."_ She said. _"And since Soundwave's no doubt tracing this signal, come to my coordinates and you'll get a crack at me. That is, if you're half as brave as the stories say you are."_

The message ended and silence filled the room. Nightshade's ebony feathers ruffled as she marched toward the door.

"Soundwave, bridge me to those coordinates. I'm going over there to teach that glitch a lesson." Nightshade said.

"Nightshade, allow me to join you." Dreadwing said, but she stopped him before he could follow her.

"Don't think you're off the hook, Dreadwing. You still have to prove that you're useful after failing to kill a simple backwater mercenary!" She growled. "I can take care of myself."

"But it could be a trap."

"If that's true, and I have no doubt that it is, then I'll deal with it accordingly. Soundwave, watch over things until my return."

Dreadwing watched her go with a displeasure expression. He couldn't force the issue any further, but that didn't mean he had to like her decision.

XXXXXX

After taking the ground bridge to the given coordinates, Nightshade transformed and flew over the designated area, which was a forest. It was dark and the weather was on the cusp of a thunder storm. Rain pelted her form as she reached the entrance to a cave in the ground, a deep pit formed by a recent earthquake two years ago. She flew into the cave and transformed to land on the ground, with Songbird following after her.

"Flamewar!" She yelled. "Flamewar, come out and face me!"

Her voice echoed throughout the cave, but no one answered her challenge. Songbird scanned the area for any biosignals, she wouldn't put it past Flamewar to stage an ambush in a place like this.

"Nightshade!"

Nightshade looked up and saw Flamewar lounging out on a ledge, like it was her throne. The arrogant glitch looked like she was an empress enjoying a bloody gladiator battle.

"It's about time you came. I was about to die from boredom." Flamewar yawned.

"The only way you'll be dying is by my hands!" Nightshade held out her arm. "Songbird!"

Songbird flew over to Nightshade to Powerlink, but before she could transform, a thick strand of webbing hit her out of the air and snatched her up.

"Songbird!" Nightshade looked to where the webbing came from and saw Airachnid picking her Minicon up, the purple femme clinging to the wall with her six spider-like appendages like a real spider. Songbird struggled in her grip as Airachnid relished the shock on Nightshade's face. "Airachnid…what the hell are you doing here?"

"I'm just here to enjoy the show." Airachnid grinned. She pinned Songbird to the wall with her webs, far from Nightshade's reach. "Now we can expect a partially fair fight."

"You little bi-"

"Now, now, Nightshade, don't expect me to play fair after all the slag you gave me. The only way you'll get out of this is with your own strength." Flamewar sneered. "No Megatron, no Soundwave, no Minicons. Just you…and our new pet."

A howl filled the air and the large Insecticon warrior walked out of the shadows, teeth gnashing together as it glared at her. Nightshade narrowed her eyes at the beast as she prepared herself, wondering what it was doing on this planet in the first place.

"I am First Lieutenant Nightshade. Cease your actions and stand down!" She commanded.

During his experiments in weaponizing the Insecticons for combat, Shockwave programmed all his Insecticons, even the alphas, to obey his commands and that of Decepticon High Command (excluding Starscream). It was a precautionary measure, seeing as the formerly feral animals were as much danger to the Cons as they were to their enemies if they all went berserk. So it was an honest surprise to Nightshade when the Insecticon didn't heed her commands and charged at her.

"I said-"

The soldier slammed into her and sent her crashing to the ground. Nightshade jumped to her feet as the Insecticon transformed to beast mode and flew at her, shooting laser blasts from its horn. A few bolts hit Nightshade and the beast rammed into her again, transforming and slamming her into the wall.

Flamewar grinned savagely as she watched the Insecticon thrash her worst enemy (next to Arcee). The soldier landed a few more hard blows to Nightshade's body, barely giving her time to react. Nightshade grabbed its horn, but he wrestled away from her and reared its head back, throwing her into the air before flying up and slicing its horn deep into her side. It spun back around and slammed her into the ground.

"Finish her!" Airachnid roared.

The Insecticon transformed to bipedal mode and charged at Nightshade, claws raised for the killing blow. But to the surprise of everyone present, Nightshade leapt up and landed a strong kick to its head, kicking it into a boulder.

"Who the hell do you think I am!" nightshade roared. "I am Nightshade, the Black Death of Styx! She who is second only to Megatron himself!"

Her body reshaped itself into her raven form, all traces of her bipedal form smoothly shifting into a large black bird of death as she flew at the Insecticon, screeching loudly. The two combatants clashed ferociously as thunder and lightning crackled against the stormy night sky. It was as if Terra herself was witnessing this savage battle between beasts.

XXXXXX

Dreadwing stood on the beach of Decepticon Island, where he remained after Nightshade confined him to base following her departure. He was torn between his duty and personal feelings. Though she ordered him to remain on standby, his Spark was telling him to forget her orders and go after her to ensure her safety. He, as well as everyone else, was well aware of Flamewar's reputation as both a warrior and a criminal. She was a dishonorable glitch who killed for sport, a relative sin in Dreadwing's eyes. That femme had spit in the Decepticons' faces for far too long and it was about time someone did something about her. But she was not someone to underestimate, for she was crafty as she was ruthless.

"Brother," Skyquake called out as he walked onto the beach. "What are you doing out here?"

"Thinking?" Dreadwing answered. "I fear that Nightshade has gotten herself into something that she can't fight her way out of, and I was considering going after her to ensure her safety."

"Disobeying direct orders based on a hunch? And they call me the reckless one." Skyquake gave his twin a queer look. "Dreadwing, you are already on thin ice after failing to kill that witch and losing a soldier on your watch. She'll, as the humans say, crucify you if you deploy against her orders for something she probably already has taken care of."

"I'm well aware that she is a capable warrior, Skyquake. But it would be foolish to think that Flamewar wouldn't have something planned with Nightshade in mind. I refuse to stand by while our leader falls into a trap!"

Skyquake sniffed at his brother's sense of justice. He was a strange one, a Decepticon with almost as much honor as an Autobot. He fought for a cause, but refused to kill for the sake of killing, looking down on people who thought that way. He wondered if Dreadwing's urge to move out was because of his sense of justice, or just out of revenge for Barricade; Skyquake didn't know or care, he just knew that his brother was fully willing to do this alone if he had to.

"Whatever you choose to do, Dreadwing, I am with you no matter what." Skyquake said.

Dreadwing nodded, not smiling, though his eyes did brighten. "Thank you, brother."

XXXXXX

Flamewar was beyond enraged. She thought that the Insecticon's superior physical might would overpower Nightshade before she could properly fight back, but apparently she underestimated the Con's bestial nature. In her excitement to snuff out Nightshade's Spark, she forgot that Nightshade herself could be just as animalistic as others of her kind (beast formers) when pushed into a corner. Even then, Flamewar had to admit that, when let loose, Nightshade was a force of nature.

In her beast mode, Nightshade unleashed the full force of her power, attacking the Insecticon with her sharp talons and beak, slashing and tearing away at its armor. Her mini-missiles blasted the Insecticon in bursts of flame and left it too stunned to properly counterattack. Nightshade changed forms and started stabbing into the beast with her swords. It howled in pain and tried to grab her, but she leapt away and spin-kicked its head.

The Insecticon fired energy bolts from its wrist cannons, and managed to score two hits on her chest, but she charged forward and backhanded its jaw, making it stumble back. It hissed and lashed out with its two smaller mandibles under its arm, but she grabbed them and brutally tore them off. As the Insecticon staggered back in pain, Nightshade went in for the kill.

One swipe of her blade and its head went flying into the darkness.

Nightshade watched the headless body of the Insecticon fall over, sparks spewing from the severed connections in its neck where its head used to be. She eyed its corpse before glaring up at an infuriated Flamewar, consequentially forgetting about Airachnid.

"Now do you see? Even when you have others fighting for you, you're still an embarrassment! Now why don't we get down to business, shall we!" Nightshade said and shifted into her beast mode, shooting into the air after Flamewar.

There was a hiss and Airachnid descended upon her, stabbing her sharp appendages into Nightshade's wings and pinning her to the ground. "You're not getting away that easily!"

"Mistress!" Songbird cried out.

Flamewar jumped to the ground and walked toward the trapped Nightshade, who was webbed to the ground and unable to move, let alone transform. Not that her overcharge was wearing off, Nightshade was starting to realize how damaged she got in her fight. Pain started creeping into her senses and going unconscious seemed like a very real thing.

"What's the matter, Nightshade? Where did all that bravado go? Or was that just your version of hot air?" Flamewar hissed. When Nightshade remained silent, Flamewar lost her patience and pointed her crossbow at her face. "Answer me!"

"Look at you, trying to be big and strong." Nightshade laughed mockingly. "You try to act superior and badass, but it's hard to be scared of a femme who tried to kill her lover because of her inferiority complex. You're low on the food pyramid, Flamewar, lower than even that traitor Deadlock, and that's saying something!"

"You glitch!" Flamewar raged.

Before she could blast Nightshade's head off, a rain of laser bolts rained down on them from above. Flamewar and Airachnid looked up to see Dreadwing and Skyquake flying into the cave and transforming to their natural forms, pointing their weapons at them.

"Weapons down and hands up, traitor. This is your only warning." Dreadwing commanded.

Flamewar spat some rather nasty curses as them as Airachnid leapt through the air, snagging her with a line of webbing before pulling her back up to another cave on the second level. Dreadwing and Skyquake shot at them, but they both disappeared into the caves Airachnid carved out earlier.

"They're escaping!" Skyquake yelled.

"We'll get them another day. Go free Songbird while I tend to our leader." Dreadwing said.

Skyquake nodded and went off to retrieve the Minicon. Dreadwing tore the webs off Nightshade's body, allowing her to transform back to her bipedal mode again. She tried to stand up, but her body was still too weak to really move thanks to her wounds. Dreadwing supported her to her feet, keeping a hand on her arm to steady her.

"You disobeyed my orders." Nightshade grumbled. "I told you to remain at the base."

"With all due respect, ma'am, had I not arrived, you would've been terminated." He replied, not sounding the least bit guilty. "I was merely acting with your safety in mind."

Nightshade stared at him even as Songbird flew onto her shoulder. After a tense minute (though Dreadwing would deny feeling nervous), she smiled.

"You've earned your place at the table, Dreadwing."

XXXXXX

"Damn it all to hell! We fragging had her!"

Airachnid watched amused as Flamewar paced around her like a caged animal on the verge of mauling somebody. They had made it into a tunnel far from where the Cons had landed, stopping to rest when they were sure they weren't being chased. Flamewar, never one to waste time, used the moment to vent her frustrations at being cheated out of her revenge at the last minute.

"Calm down, sweetie. Clearly you underestimated Nightshade's mind. Megatron made her second in command for a reason, and you know how primal beast formers can get when pushed to their limit." Airachnid said.

"Don't start, Airachnid. I thought your so-called warrior was up to the task of killing her!" Flamewar yelled. "But he was completely useless!"

"Now just settle-"

"Don't tell me to calm down! I'm anything but calm right now!"

Airachnid frowned, but then she smirked and motioned for Flamewar to follow her. "Come, I have something to show you."

"What is it?" Flamewar grumbled.

"A little present that might improve your mood."

They walked deeper underground until they reached a large cavern. Airachnid led Flamewar to a part of the tunnel network she rarely visited, and when she brought the ex-Con into the chamber, Flamewar couldn't believe her eyes.

The entire cavern was filled wall to wall with thousands of stasis pods, and inside the conical pods were slumbering Insecticons. Airachnid smirked at the awestruck look on Flamewar's face.

"Our drone was merely a scout." She said.

Flamewar smiled. Her war was just beginning.

* * *

 **Man, a lot of things happened. Stan Lee finally passed away, god bless his soul, Lost Light officially finished last week, Transformers: Unicron finished today, and all that's left is the final issue of Optimus Prime. Gonna be a long wait until next year, but at least we have that new Go-Bots comic coming out (crappy art aside, it looks interesting). Also, updates might come slowly since I'm taking web design classes that take up my entire day. Sorry for the slow updates in advance. Be sure to check out the official website for Transformers Titan on wordpress, directions to link in my profile. Thanks for reading, and please leave a review.**


	10. A Feast of Crows

Chapter 10-A Feast of Crows

"Come on, move it! We need to get this stuff loaded before nightfall!"

Major Klaus Kruger yelled his orders to his strike team in his usual hardline manner as Asuka mining talos loaded crates of energy crystals onto the airship. The immediate area was patrolled by infantry soldiers, while Codarl units kept watch out for any unwanted visitors, human or cybertronian. Klaus eyed the glowing alien mineral that was taken out of the cave it was mined from in the middle of Yellowstone. He sneered at the crystals as they passed him and cursed his situation.

This was one of many of OZ's global operations. The secret organization was hard at work in collecting as many energon crystals as possible in all six continents, even heading underwater operations for the fuel source. An operation of this scale would've been rather difficult had it not been for Thornment offering her assistance in locating the energon using specialized detection equipment. It was useful not just for finding energon, but also rooting out disguised cybertronians. The overall goal was to somehow create a hybrid fusion of Terran and cybertronian technology to create new, versatile weaponry.

His superiors were happy at how things were turning out for them, but Klaus wasn't all for it. He hated the blind trust they had in this alien, the same member of those race of machines that killed hundreds of his comrades (the Cons were rather thorough in their extermination of soldiers and personnel after finding and dismantling OZ installations). For all they knew, she was planning on killing them once they had the energon they needed. He was well aware that many of the Zodiac were impulsive or irrational to varying degrees, but for the steadfast, hardline Aries (a man Klaus respected greatly) to get roped into this ill-fated scheme was still infuriating.

'As if we don't have enough problems with those esper freaks in Karaba given us shit. Now we must deal with a bunch of aliens planning to scorch our beautiful Mother Gaia. What is this world coming to?' Klaus thought angrily.

"Trouble, Major Kruger?" A thickly accented voice asked.

"No, Dr. Singh, just thinking." Klaus answered briskly.

Dr. Arman Singh was a high ranking scientist and theorist in quantum theory in OZ's R&D division, not to mention he was also one of the minds behind the talos energon weapons development program. He was a tall middle aged man with no an ounce of hair on his head and a thin mustache that hinted at his Dacian heritage.

"Thinking of what, if you don't mind me asking." Singh inquired.

"This." Klaus waved a hand at the mining op. "When I signed up for the Zodiac's noble cause, I didn't expect to fight aliens or make deals with them. We waste our time searching for something that is more useful to the aliens than us while they continue using our planet as a battleground. Now we're working with one of them like its our friend!"

Singh raised an eyebrow. "I never pegged you for a xenophobe, Major."

Klaus glared at him. "I'm only stressing the need to address the clear and present threat sitting right next to us. That robot has us doing its dirty work, wipe out her enemies before turning on us. I will never question the wisdom of the Zodiac, but they're judgment seems to be limited in this particular situation."

"That's treasonous talk, Klaus." Singh hummed.

"Which is why I'm telling you, good doctor."

Singh laughed and walked past the major, picking up a small piece of energon. "Don't get me wrong, Klaus, your concerns are valid. General Aries' last alliance with one of these beings didn't go so well either. We are, of course, careful to avoid a repeat of that scenario."

Then his expression turned dark and he crushed the crystal in his hand. "But the Zodiac didn't pay you to think, they pay you to follow orders. Do not think that they don't have a contingency plan for this. With this energon, the cybertronians will not be able to stop our conquest of this world!"

The HSS tank behind Singh exploded, blowing the man off his feet onto his face. Klaus jumped back and drew his weapon as the site around him was suddenly attacked from above. Looking up, he saw two robot birds, one red and black and the other yellow and black, swooping down shooting lasers from their wings.

"What the hell is going on?" He yelled at a soldier.

"We're under attack, sir!" The soldier replied, pointing to the blue Decepticon that appeared at the edge of the site. "We have three NBEs attacking the camp!"

"Shit! Mobilize our mechanized units, bring those birds down and have the talos focus on the blue one!" Klaus ordered.

HSS tanks and Codarl talos focused on the Decepticon Soundwave as he unleashed hell on them with his concussion rifle. HEAT rounds and kinetic shells bounced off his body, leaving behind dents in his armor though did little damage. Still, Soundwave wasn't taking any chances if one of them scored a lucky hit between his armor, so he made their deaths quick. His chest panel opened and Ravage shot out, shifting to robot mode and tearing apart the humans shooting at him.

Klaus cursed the aliens as they decimated his small talos unit and jumped into one of the unmanned HSS tanks, spinning the vehicle around and pointing the tank's newly developed laser emitters, experimental weapons based on the same weapons used by the Navy in anti-ship combat, at Soundwave's back. Before he could fire a shot, a black shadow flew over him and he saw another Con shooting straight at the airship. He recognized her profile as the Deceptions' first lieutenant, Nightshade.

"Don't you dare!" Klaus fired the laser emitters, but Nightshade was too fast as she fired a volley of mini-missiles at the airship. The poor aircraft didn't stand a chance and Klaus watched helplessly as the airship went up in a ball of flames that reached high into the sky. "NO!"

He shot at Nightshade in a fury, growing increasingly more frustrated as he missed her. Nightshade transformed to her bipedal mode and threw one of her swords at him. Klaus jumped off the tank just as the giant sword stabbed into the vehicle and it exploded, blasting him to the ground. Spitting out dirt, he took out his assault rifle and shot at Nightshade.

"Just die you filthy-"

A sharp pain rippled through his back as three large claws dug into his spine, tearing through his body armor like it was paper. Ravage pounced on him from behind and pinned him to the ground, his claws still digging painfully into the man's back. Nightshade walked past them, idly telling Ravage to join her as she went to survey the operation that was going on. In excruciating pain, but still coherent, Klaus pushed himself up and drew his pistol, shooting weak bullets at the back of Nightshade's head.

Nightshade didn't even turn to glance at him when she snapped her fingers and gave the order. "Ravage, clean up the vermin, please."

In a heartbeat, Klaus was assaulted by Ravage once again, this time in a more violent manner. Claws tore through his body armor, ripping into his skin and spewing blood everywhere, his arms were brutally torn from their sockets and skin peeled off his flesh in bloody ribbons. Ravage wasn't merciful as he tore out the still conscious major's chest and stomach, sending organs and entrails falling out, crunching bones beneath his feet. Within seconds, all that was left of Major Klaus was a few strips of meaty tissue, and a large puddle of blood on the ground.

Soundwave appeared beside Nightshade, who was stomping on the cockpit of one of the disable talos. In his hand was the terrified Dr. Singh.

"P-please, don't hurt me! I was just following orders, like any good soldier!" He whimpered. "I'll tell you whatever you want, just please don't kill me!"

"You'll tell us regardless," Nightshade said harshly, making him cower in fear. "And we don't exactly need you to speak either."

XXXXXX

Starscream watched disinterested from the doorway as Soundwave interrogated their human prisoner. The spymaster used his outlier powers to probe the mind of the OZ scientist for any information he might have. As for the good Dr. Singh, he was strapped to a chain, unable to move as his mind was mercilessly unraveled by Soundwave. To his surprise, Soundwave was having more trouble than he thought entering the man's head.

"Enjoying the show, Starscream?" Nightshade asked as she walked up to him.

"This is a waste of time." He said.

"Oh?" Nightshade said, not totally mocking but close to it. "How so?"

"We're expending our resources playing with humans when we should be making our presence on this world stronger. The Autobots know we're weak after Megatron's defeat, and if they catch wind of Barricade's death and Flamewar's defection-"

"They won't even get a hint…so long as you keep your mouth shut. This mission is important." Nightshade said. "OZ has been a thorn in our side since they abducted Lugnut. They obviously want a cybertronian body to harvest and don't care what faction they have to piss off to get one. But the real question is why. Why go through all the trouble?"

"To make weapons, of course. Surely you've seen how those animals work." Starscream sneered. "Give them an energon cube and rest assured they'll find a way to make a gun out of it."

"Given their recent excursions into energon mining, I'm inclined to agree with you, but what confuses me is how they even know about energon in the first place."

"Wishful thinking?" Starscream withered like a dry flower under Nightshade's glower.

"Whatever the case, OZ is a threat to our campaign on this world. It's bad enough that we have to fight the Autobots for energon, I'm not going to let a bunch of humans interfere in our war."

"Yes, but-"

"Listen to me, Starscream, if they manage to get a hold of our science and technology, then we'll be fighting a three way war that we're ill-equipped for. In our condition, that's the last thing we need. I understand your concerns, but we need to handle these things as they come along and not ignore them."

Starscream sniffed, not angry but just a little miffed at the dressing down. He knew it was important to eliminate any third party that interferes with their war and threatens their operation, but he couldn't help but feel this was personal in some way. And he made sure she knew that. "Are you sure you're not doing this as retribution for what they did to Lugnut?"

"Starscream, Lugnut died at the hands of the Autobots' pet human," She answered. "And since killing that bastard has gotten significantly more difficult, I'd rather slaughter humans less heavily defended."

'Yup, it's personal.' Starscream thought.

The door slid open and Soundwave stepped out silently. Nightshade inquired as to how the interrogation went.

"His mind is heavily shielded from my telepathy. It would seem that he has undergone mental recondition to resist telepathic manipulation." Soundwave reported.

"Even against your powers, Soundwave?" Starscream asked, slightly surprised. These OZ goons knew their stuff.

"His defenses held me at bay for some time, but even that could not keep me out. What he knows is limited, but according to his past experiences, OZ has possession of Barricade's remains."

"That explains his missing body." Nightshade muttered. "Do you know where they are?"

"I could not ascertain their current location, but I do know that they'll be transported to a secret base in Dacia, Europa."

"Good work, Soundwave. Keep probing his mind until he breaks, then dispose of him." She ordered and walked down the hall.

"And where are you going?" Starscream hummed.

"To war, my friend." She replied. "To war."

XXXXXX

It too a little longer than it should have for Soundwave to get the information they needed, but they were able to ascertain the location of Barricade's remains. According to Dr. Singh's memories, they were being transported to a villa owned by one of the Zodiac. Infiltration was key here, and lucky for the Cons, they had a way in that did not involve launching an air strike on the grounds. A summit was being held there, where the wealthy financial backers of OZ were assembling to celebrate the organization's success and talk on "important" matters. It took a few days to set everything up, but Nightshade was able to formulate a plan.

"You know, if I knew that were you going to be riding in my driver's seat, I would've sprayed some air freshener earlier." Knockout quipped.

"Just shut up and be a good car." Nightshade sighed. "As in, a quiet car that doesn't talk or flirt."

"Admit it, you love it."

"I could easily smash your windshield in, you know."

"Shutting up."

It was a twofold operation; Nightshade and Knockout would go in through the front door with their holomatter avatars to check out their enemies, disguised as a wealthy couple with non-direct ties to OZ. Meanwhile, Soundwave and his team will infiltrate the villa's security systems and find out where they're keeping Barricade's body. If everything went as planned, they would deny OZ another chance at becoming too powerful and maybe even kill a Zodiac if they play their cards right.

"Gathering information is crucial, but our main objective is locating Barricade's remains. Once we've found them, we'll either destroy or retrieve them." Nightshade told the Cons in the command room. "We can't let these humans insult us anymore than they've already have. We go in, do what we need to do, and get out as quietly as we came in."

"Do we know exactly where his body is?" Dreadwing asked.

"No, which is why I'm having Soundwave link into their computer systems to get a layout of the area. Knockout and I will find one of their generals and take him out if possible." She replied.

"Good luck with that." Starscream muttered.

In contrast to Starscream's cynicism, Knockout was grinning like a mad fool at the thought of escorting Nightshade to a party. Sure it was on a mission, but he'll have bragging rights for days afterwards!

It was late in the evening when they reached the villa. There were already an assortment of limos and expensive vehicles parked out in front, and Knockout (in his car mode) parked himself near the entrance, his deep red coloration standing out amongst the white, black and blue cars in the parking lot. Once he was parked, he transferred his consciousness to his avatar and grinned.

"Show time."

Nightshade rolled her eyes. "Stay focused, you moron."

Nightshade's avatar was that of a beautiful fair skinned woman with short violet hair and thin eyebrows. She had a heart-shaped face with narrow dark violet eyes and full lips coated in purple lipstick. Her outfit was a simple indigo dress that stopped at her knees with a slit running up her thigh and purple boots with matching gloves. A black fur shawl hung over her shoulders and gave her a rather regal look. Though she didn't realize it, Nightshade unconsciously modeled her avatar after the Egyptian queen Cleopatra, with a few cosmetic differences.

Knockout's avatar was also looking proper fresh; he took on the appearance of a handsome man with dark red hair smoothed back behind his head and a well-proportioned body that combined elements of a swimmer and an athlete together in one package. He had a dazzling smile that showed his sparkling perfect teeth and wore a crisp red suit with black shoes that hugged his body in just the right way. All in all, he felt bloody extravagant.

"My oh my, don't we look fine today?" Knockout smirked. He ran his eyes over Nightshade's avatar and whistled. "Not even the skin of a human can dampen your beauty."

"For Mortilus' sake, Knockout, don't start." She groaned. "Please, just…try to take this seriously."

"My lady, I am a master at mixing business with please. You can count on me." He said with another impossibly dazzling smile.

They approached the front doors, where two burly security guards in black suits and dark sunglasses stood guard reading the guests' invitations. Nightshade presented hers, an imitation stolen from its intended recipient who would later be found dead with his wife the next morning. It only took a second for the guard to skim over the letter and let them pass.

"Have a nice evening ma'am." The guard said politely. Nightshade smiled.

"Don't worry, I will."

Neither of the guards noticed her drop a tiny blue micro-cassette player on the floor, which sprouted tiny metal legs and scampered off into another part of the mansion. Soundwave was in.

XXXXXX

Since he had no prior knowledge of the estate's layout, infiltrating the building was a big difficult, though all he had to do was use his enhanced hearing to search out the security room, which was probably full of monitors he could detect from sound alone. Still, he had to be careful. The villa was the property of an OZ member, so there was a chance that there were anti-personnel countermeasures that were designed to completely tear apart intruders. One could never be too careful when the Zodiac were concerned.

While Nightshade and Knockout were mingling with the other guests in the main hall, Soundwave used the distraction to make his way toward the security room. Using his powers to listen for the human guards talking and walking through the halls, he deduced that the room was on the second floor and skittered along the floor on thin spider-like legs. There were no vents he could access, so he had to climb the stairs (which was a nightmare) and followed the sounds to the security room, where there were only two guards watching the monitors. Good, the less protection, the less mess he'll leave behind.

"This is torture." One guard yawned. "We're stuck in this cage while the rick folks get to party and have booze."

"Can it, James, this is our job. What the hell were you expecting when you signed up?" Asked his partner.

"Not sitting on my ass all day long, that's what." James grumbled. He whistled when he saw a purple haired beauty walk past one of the cameras. "Oh la-la, who's that?"

"She's way out of your league, Romeo." His partner scolded. "Focus on your job or Ms. Scheele will have your head."

"Yeah, yeah."

They sat in silence for a few minutes until a series of loud metal clangs made them jump in surprise. The second guard got up and turned around. "What the-gah!"

He was cut off painfully as Frenzy gored his drill hand through his chest and out his back in a burst of blood, splattering the red liquid all over the monitors. James tried to draw his firearm, but Rumble transformed to full size and caught him in his claws. It only took a little pressure to snap his neck and kill him instant. The twins tossed the bodies to the side.

"The fleshies are down." Rumble grinned.

"Now it's time to go to town." Frenzy laughed.

He picked up the still transformed Soundwave and placed him on the desk. A cord extended from Soundwave's underside and plugged itself into the computer's access port, connecting him to the system and granting him access to the mansion's secrets.

XXXXXX

The party was already in full swing when Nightshade and Knockout arrived, but things didn't get started until sunset. Nightshade tried to keep herself and Knockout from mingling too much with the humans, though apparently their holo-avatars' appearances only attracted more attention from the opposite sex. Knockout was just loving showing off his "true grandeur" to the women who flocked to him, and Nightshade herself had to deal with the rich brats thinking they had a chance with her. She chose this avatar because it reflected who she saw herself as, but didn't expect it to garner this much attention. Having all these men hitting on her made her physically sick.

She got a ping on her internal comm and heard Soundwave's voice. " _Nightshade, I have hacked into the security systems."_

"Good," She smiled. "What did you find?"

" _There is a tunnel under the mansion that leads to a storage facility hidden under a large hill a few miles from our position. That is probably where they store items of interest for transport to other parts of the country."_

"Take your Minicons and go to the garage. Find that base and retrieve Barricade's remains. If you are unable to do so, then destroy them and kill anyone who gets in your way."

" _Yes Nightshade."_

She signed off and turned to Knockout. "We have our target."

"Good, I'm starting to get antsy here." Knockout frowned, pulling at his suit collar. "Like something bad is hovering nearby."

"That itchy feeling you get when you're near Megatron, me, Starscream and pretty much everyone you work with?"

"Yup. How did you know?" He asked.

Nightshade rolled her eyes. Working with him was such a hassle. How the hell did Starscream manage it?

The chatter in the ballroom quieted down as a young woman wearing an olive green dress that hugged her form with short blonde hair and sharp brown eyes walked down the stairs.

"Good evening honored guests, I am Anita Scheele, assistant to Mr. Harvey." She introduced herself. "I would like to formally introduce Laguna Harvey of Epsilon Holdings."

Another man walked down the stairs and this time he set off all of Nightshade's danger senses. He was a handsome man with chiseled features. He looked the part of a mild-mannered aristocrat; with short black hair, sea green eyes covered by narrow glasses and a charming smile, but Nightshade could see through his façade. The same air about him that Aries and Aquarius had.

"That's him, the Zodiac." Nightshade whispered to Knockout.

"Him?" Knockout blinked. "But he looks harmless!"

"All humans look harmless, but this man is definitely one of them. He's killed before." She narrowed her eyes. Nightshade could tell by the way he walked, how his eyes were always alert and focused, the slight tenseness of his legs and shoulders. He was a warrior, or at least a fighter.

"What should we do?"

"Keep an eye on him. He could have important information we could use. If not, then we kill him and OZ has one less general to bother us with." She said, crossing her arms. "We just need to give Soundwave enough time to do his part."

Nightshade and Knockout tensed up when they saw Laguna glance their way. He gave the pair a smile before addressing the guests.

"Welcome to my estate, comrades. I'll keep this short since we want you all to have the rest of the night to yourselves," Laguna said. "I want to thank each and every one of you for your contributions to Epsilon Holdings and supporting our work. Not only do I want to show my gratitude to my financial backers, but also the men and women who work hard to design new technologies to further our cause towards helping mankind. We all have worked to make the world a better place, and I am honored to work alongside such dedicated people."

The guests applauded their distinguished host, but Nightshade and Knockout were unimpressed. The former especially since something about the man rubbed her the wrong way.

"Someone's full of themselves." Knockout remarked.

"You're one to talk." She snorted. Ah! Now she knew what Laguna reminded her of…Starscream.

XXXXXX

While the party was going on, the still transformed Soundwave and his cassettes entered the tunnel they found in the mansion's database. It was basically a hidden road that led into a hangar built inside the hollowed out interior of what used to be a nuclear bunker. Fortunately, there were no vehicles going inside, because there were absolutely no places to hide, and it wasn't time to start shooting up the place yet.

"Scrap, how far does this damn tunnel go?" Frenzy grumbled.

"No idea, bro." Rumble replied. "You think we might find the end of Knockout's ego down here?"

"Nah, that's probably at the center of the planet."

"Would both of you shut it! We're in enemy territory." Ravage hissed. He hated being stuck with these morons. They make even the simplest of jobs more complicated than it needed to be. He paused and leaned down to sniff the ground, his snout pulling back in a snarl. "I smell metal, dead metal. Along with lots of humans, and maybe a few talos as well."

"I can hear them. We are close." Soundwave said. "Keep moving forward."

After a few minutes, they reached the bunker. It was larger than they thought, big enough to fit nearly two dozen talos and tall enough that a normal cybertronian could walk around freely. The bunker was full of armored vehicles and forklifts moving large crates onto trucks. Civilian scale construction talos moved lighter cargo to designated areas of the bunker, while the familiar forms of the Codarls stood guard with strange looking rifles. There were also many armed humans standing guard as well.

The cassette team quickly snuck into the bunker and hid behind a few crates. Ravage lifted his head and sniffed around. It shouldn't be too hard to find Barricade's body; a mechanoid corpse smelled differently from a living body, a contrast between a body that was no longer animated by a Spark and was slowly rusting. Laserbeak sat away from prying eyes, recording everything for future reference.

"I've got it." Ravage said. He nodded his head towards the far corner of the room. "They're keeping him in those crates over there, three in total."

"Three?" Frenzy said.

"Flamewar was very thorough when she killed him."

"I see the crates." Laserbeak said. "They're large, too large for us to carry outside."

"Then we must terminate the remains." Soundwave said. "Frenzy."

"On it boss. Time to bring the pain!" Frenzy took Soundwave from Ravage and threw him into the thick of the activity in the bunker.

Nobody noticed Soundwave flying through the air, but they definitely noticed the Decepticon transforming from a tiny micro-cassette player into a thirty-two foot Decepticon who immediately began shooting them down with his rockets and concussion blaster. The soldiers fell into disarray as Soundwave quickly disabled the talos before they could even point their weapons at him.

"Intruders!"

"We've got an NBE attacking!"

"Sound the alarm!"

A few soldiers ran toward the emergency alarm, but Rumble and Frenzy moved in to cut them off. They started massacring them without remorse, making sure to keep anyone from sounding the alarm for reinforcements. The other soldiers shot at them with assault rifles, but their bullets were largely ineffective on their touch armor.

Soundwave blasted a hole in the cockpit of a Codarl and crushed the head of another before moving to the crates carrying his former comrade's remains. He took a step towards the crates, but a blast to the shoulder from a plasma blast staggered him. He spun around and was surprised to see that two Codarls were shooting energy blasts at him! Energy weapons? Humans weren't advanced enough to weaponized laser weaponry. Soundwave was puzzled, but pushed down his shock and moved in.

He charged at the talos, ducking under their plasma blasts and got inside their range. He grabbed their rifles and ripped them from their hands before using them to blast their cockpits into molten slag, incinerating the pilots within. Tossing the guns away, he looked back to the containers. Nightshade said that Barricade's body was to be retrieved or destroyed, and with their small time window, the latter was the most logical decision. He stepped back and pointed his concussion blaster at the crates.

Before he could pull the trigger, a glowing red vine burst from the ground and wrapped around his arm, pulling his arm to the side just as he fired and the concussion blast hit a truck, destroying it. Soundwave jumped back as an alien looking aircraft burst from the ground and shifted in a mess of parts to form the Order acolyte Thornment.

"Hello, Soundwave." She said, grinning. "Fancy seeing you here."

XXXXXX

Nightshade stood on the balcony on the second floor tapping her finger on the banister impatiently. She knew that Soundwave must have infiltrated the bunker by now, but for some reason he wasn't answering her calls, and he wasn't reporting in either. None of them were. This was troubling; they were in uncharted territory here and they couldn't risk making mistakes that could end up with them on a lab table. She groaned and shook her head. This was why she didn't like taking command. That nagging feeling at the back of your mind that every mistake, every death that happens on a mission will fall on you. It was stressful and made her feel older than she really was.

"Are you alright ma'am?" Laguna Harvey, the devil himself, walked out onto the balcony, his glasses glinting in the moonlight. "You look a little pale."

Nightshade inwardly cursed, but she replied smoothly. "I don't do well with parties. They're not my thing."

"I know how you feel. It gets slow after a while." Laguna said and leaned on the banister, looking out into the dark forest before them. Night had finally fallen, and all was eerily quiet. No sign of any nighttime critters and it felt a little foreboding. "I never got your name, Ms.…?"

"Florence," Nightshade said, violet eyes glancing at Laguna sharply. "Florence Nightingale, Mr. Harvey."

"Please, just call me Laguna." He smiled. "So how are you liking the party, Florence?"

"It's nice and all, but you'll have to forgive me if I'm a bit weary of gatherings like these." She frowned. "I'm a woman of action who likes to get her hands dirty. All this standing around and laughing with fake smiles doesn't appeal to me. No point in making friends with people you're only going to stab in the back in the future. Sorry for my bluntness."

"No, I get where you're coming from. Unfortunately, much of the aristocracy, no, mankind itself is like that. A world full of fake smiles and hidden intentions. It makes one hard to trust in this day and age." Laguna hummed. "Tell me, Florence, if you had the power of a god, what would you do with it?"

That question caught Nightshade off guard. "What?"

"If you had the power of a god, what would you do with it? Use it for yourself, or use it to preserve your race?"

"T-that's a loaded question! Of course, I'd use it to preserve my race, especially if they were on the verge of extinction." She answered, thinking back to Cybertron and the state of their race right now. She'd give anything to save her people and fulfill Megatron's dream of a grand future for all of them. "But what good is being a god if you're practically handed everything? Where's the fun in that?"

Laguna looked down at her and smiled. "Yes, you'd save your people. That's what most would say. The thought of being alone in this cold universe is not an inviting thought for anybody, even a Decepticon such as yourself."

Nightshade froze and slowly turned to the smiling noble. "What did you say?"

"Don't play games, my dear. You're not a very good player." Laguna tapped the lens on his glasses, which glowed like a miniature computer screen. "These glasses were designed to see through most technological illusions, even your holomatters are not impervious to my sight."

Nightshade's hand shot up to grab his neck, planning to snap his neck to kill him in one quick movement. But Laguna easily caught her hand in a tight grip that was definitely inhuman. She tried to break free but couldn't pull away and he was still smiling all the while.

"No need for hostilities, Nightshade. That's your name right? We don't want you making a scene now, hmm?"

Nightshade tried to disengage her avatar and call Knockout, but both her comm and her avatar weren't responding. She got no signal on her comm-link and her avatar wasn't phasing out like it should. She was stuck in this form!

"So long as you're in my territory, on my hallowed grounds, your holo-avatars are here to stay. Your conscious minds are stuck in the faux bodies of the humans you so despised and your internal comm channel won't work within OZ airspace." Laguna sucked his teeth in mock pity. "We wouldn't want you calling for an air strike, wouldn't we?"

"You good for nothing hairless ape!" Nightshade growled.

"That's a new one. Much more unique than scrap or fleshy." He grinned. Three guards approached them, one of them holding a struggling Knockout. Laguna took off his glasses to reveal his glowing amber gold eyes. "Now let's introduce ourselves for real, shall we? I am Pisces of the Zodiac, and I welcome you two to my humble abode."

XXXXXX

Thornment gave Soundwave no time to react when she lashed out at him. Her spike ridden vine-shaped heat rods spun around her body, tearing up the floor as she tried to ensnare him. One heat rod snagged his right arm, but he dug his feet into the ground to anchor himself. Soundwave yanked back and pulled her forward instead. Thornment, being lighter than Soundwave, was yanked off her feet, but she leaned back to dodge the punch he threw at her face. She planted her feet in his chest and kicked him into a forklift.

Seeing that Soundwave's team were focusing on her, she decided a change in scenery was needed. "Let's take this outside, shall we? Civilized beings like us need our privacy."

Thornment transformed into her aerial mode and flew into the tunnel, grabbing Soundwave with her heat rods and dragging him after her. His team couldn't do anything as their leader was taken right from under their nose.

"Boss!" Rumble yelled.

Ravage and Laserbeak were already on the move, zooming past the twins as the former gave his orders. "Take care of the crates! We'll find Soundwave!"

Rumble and Frenzy watched them vanish into the tunnel and turned to face the remaining Talos. It would've been easy for them to dispatch one or two alone, but then they saw a couple of more Talos equipped with their dangerous plasma rifles marching into the room. Reinforcements called by Thornment.

"I hate my job." Frenzy groaned.

Thornment dragged Soundwave outside and into the forest surrounding the mansion. They flew almost a mile away from the mansion before Soundwave got free and rolled across the ground, smashing through a tree before getting to his feet. Thornment transformed and threw one of her whips at him, which he dodged and kicked her aside. Thornment fell back, but avoided his outreached hands and jumped on him, wrapping her legs around his torso and using her weight to drag him to the ground.

"You filthy Decepticons think you're so powerful, that a race of bipedal monkeys wouldn't be able to best you at anything. Well, how does it feel to be outsmarted by them?" Thornment wrapped a heat rode around his chest and squeezed, digging her thorns into his metal skin. "Did you think we wouldn't anticipate you coming to retrieve the body? These humans I work with are a hell of a lot smarter than the morons who run this planet's modern society!"

Soundwave deployed a blade from his arm and slashed at her, but she quickly disengaged from him and back-flipped away. He stabbed at her, but she kicked his arm aside and slammed that same heel into his face, cracking his visor. A whip slash left a bleeding cut in his shoulder and he stumbled back.

"Such arrogance must be punished." She spat. "And I can't wait to see those humans light you barbarians up like a firecracker!"

Soundwave fired three missiles from his shoulder cannon, which she dodged, but they destroyed the trees and brought them falling on her. Thornment jumped away from the falling trees, but Soundwave slammed into her, crashing through two trees before throwing her to the ground. She rolled away before he could stomp on her face and kicked him in the visor. She weaved around his bod and grabbed his arm, twisting it behind his back and pulling. Soundwave grunted and smashed his arm and her into a tree, but she didn't let go. She wrapped her legs around his shoulders and pulled even harder than before, even when he started slamming her into anything in sight.

"Do you feel that, Soundwave? The feel of your arm slowly being torn from its socket?" Thornment hissed. "That's pain. It reminds us of our mortality. That we are not gods, just fools who got too full of ourselves because we don't age. Death holds sway over all, Decepticon, and you are no exception!"

Pointing her left arm at his waist, she shot a heat rod to wrap around his waist as act as an anchor as she planted her feet on his left side and pulled as hard as she could. Metallic groans could be heard as his arm was strained under the intense pressure.

"Don't worry, your little nightingale will follow soon. I'll make sure to send her to you personally!"

XXXXXX

Pisces escorted Nightshade and Knockout to his personal study, a cozy little mini-library full of books that Nightshade figured were just for show and were never read even once. The room was probably here just to show off his "knowledge". The arrogant bastard was almost as pretentious as Knockout. Once they were situated, Pisces dismissed the guards and sat at his desk, though the two Cons refused to sit down.

"Nice little place you got here." Knockout said, looking around with a sneer. "So…is this the part where you tell us your evil plan?"

Pisces merely smiled at them. "I must say, this is a surprise. I was expecting something more direct from the Decepticons. Like an air strike or a frontal charge to kill everyone here."

"Contrary to what you've heard, we operate through deception." Nightshade spat. "It's in the name."

"Unlike you humans who like to blow things up on a daily basis." Knockout said.

"How true you are, Knockout. We humans are savages, aren't we? Our races are quite alike in that regard." Pisces smirked. "Granted, unlike you cybertronians, humanity still has a planet to call home."

Knockout bristled. "Go frag yourself!"

"Get to the point, Zodiac. Why are we talking like old college buddies instead of trying to kill each other?" Nightshade asked. "You clearly have us at your mercy, and yet you're only seeking to talk to us."

"Because unlike my more trigger happy comrades, I prefer to use words to get my point across. Wastes less time and resources, yes? Besides, I think one fight is another for tonight."

He pressed a button on his desk and the painting behind his chair slid to the side to reveal a monitor. It was showing Soundwave's battle against Thornment, which surprised Nightshade and Knockout.

"Who is she?" Knockout gaped. "What's she doing here?"

"That's Thornment, our newest business partner. A woman-er, femme-with similar goals to ours." Pisces said. "At the moment, she's giving your friend a well-deserved beat down in response to his attempted theft of our property."

He switched the TV off and leaned back in his chair. The glare Nightshade was giving him would've been enough to put the fear of god into the hearts of lesser men, but the general was unfazed.

"I know you currently hate me right now because my friend is killing your friend, but believe me when I say that I only want to talk."

"Then talk." She said stiffly. "What the hell do you want?"

"A possible alliance between OZ and the Decepticons." Pisces grinned at the shocked looks on the Cons' faces. "As you know, OZ's main goal is to dominate this world and bring mankind into its next state of evolution. Similar to you Decepticons seeking to conquer the galaxy to revive the glory of your species."

"Get to the point."

"Despite the physiological differences between our races, we are both plagued by the one element that haunts all life in the universe-death. Death is the enemy of all physical creatures; it crumbles mountains, destroys kingdoms, and steals everything from us without an ounce of mercy. You cybertronians may be near immortal, but you are still vulnerable to the laws of causality, and I know that your lack of a proper method of steady reproduction means that your people are slowly edging toward the endangered species list. More people die than they are born, and humans have a bad habit of burning everything they touch. So why don't we join forces to enact the Grand Plan?"

"The Grand Plan?" Knockout echoed.

"OZ seeks to further the evolution of humanity into a new form of life, one that is united as a single biological entity, the greatest in the galaxy, but the reality is that we do not have the resources to really complete such a goal in the near-or far-future, advanced technology or not. If our evolution can't be physical, then it will be mental, and all Thornment has given us a new direction to go down. The possible means of achieving true evolution…is to shed our physical forms." Pisces stood up, his eyes glowing a bright amber. "We were tasked to find a possible way to evolve humanity, and we have found it. All that remains is the resources to initiate it. Join us, and together we can become immortal beings immune to the ravages of nature. That is what you want, yes? To become the strongest beings in the galaxy?"

A lesser being would have accepted this offer, thinking that it was a clear path to victory, but Nightshade wasn't so foolish. She didn't like the implications of this goal, the elimination of individuality, stripping away their very nature to become something that doesn't belong in this universe. It sounded slightly monstrous to her.

What's worse is that Pisces' preaching reminded her of the ravings of a cult back on Cybertron…a cult run by a witch who ruined so many lives in the name of her "God". No, she couldn't accept this, not when it was liable to do more harm than good to her race in the long run.

"We are aiming to become the strongest beings in the galaxy…we are the strongest. That was never an issue." Nightshade said. "And I have only one goal…to help Megatron win this war and conquer the galaxy. I don't have time to entertain your fanatical dreams."

"It's only a dream if you lack the means to make it come true." Pisces said.

"The answer is still no." She said.

"Yeah, what she said." Knockout grinned.

Pisces frowned and sat back down, tapping his desk. He looked only slightly disappointed, but not overly so. He expected this reaction. "That's a shame. We could've achieved so much together."

"Maybe if you didn't dissect one of our troops and kidnap the corpse of another, we would've considered it." Knockout remarked.

"In that case, I see no reason to keep you around anymore. Goodbye, Nightshade of the Decepticons. I'll make sure to tell Thornment to leave Soundwave's head to you."

Pisces snapped his fingers and the holomatter avatars vanished in a flash of light.

XXXXXX

Nightshade's purple optics flickered on and she shot her head up. It took her a moment to gather her bearings and realize that she was in her beast mode 400 miles away from the mansion. Songbird, who was resting on a tree branch, squeaked as Nightshade transformed to robot mode and punched a hole in a tree trunk.

"That bastard!" She roared. "Who the hell does he think he is? Preaching the choir to me like I'm some fragging moron! That slag might work on Starscream, but I won't be led astray by some human who thinks he's a god!"

"Mistress, what happened?" Songbird asked.

" _Whoa,"_ Knockout said over the comm. " _Is anyone else getting feedback by the sudden deactivation or is it just me?"_

"Quit your yapping Knockout and call Leader-1 for a ground bridge! I'm going after Soundwave, Songbird, come!"

Nightshade was already in the air and flying towards Soundwave's location with Songbird in tow.

XXXXXX

"I've heard many stories about you, you know. Bludgeon's little pet, the mind reader. Megatron's silent killer who does not scream, cry or shout. A literal blank slate. A glitch perhaps? Or something personal?"

Soundwave's arm was already dislocated, but he didn't flinch or scream, having severed his neural connections to negate the pain. But with one arm broken and another restrained, Thornment had was slowly straggling him with her legs around his neck, using her thighs to slowly put pressure on his throat and trying to pop his head off like a champagne bottle.

"Autobots, Decepticons, you're all children squabbling over something that's already taken. This galaxy, this universe, it all belongs to the gods. If you beg for forgiveness, the maybe you will be granted a place in their Host. Eternal paradise sounds nice, doesn't it?"

S-Soundwave superior," He grunted. "Thornment inferior."

Thornment hissed and started putting pressure on his neck, ready to snap his head off with brute force. But a particle blast to her back blasted her off Soundwave and sent her into a tree. Laserbeak swooped in low, firing his laser cannons at her while Ravage tore apart the vines holding Soundwave. The spymaster fell to the ground, clutching his broken arm.

"Sorry we're late." Ravage said. "We ran into human forces on the way and it took some time killing them."

"You filthy animals!" Thornment shouted and smacked her vines into Laserbeak, sending him into a tree branch. "I'll decapitate you all!"

"You're not the first one to say that!" Laserbeak cawed.

Thornment snarled and cracked her whips against the trees, destroying them. She didn't care if she was outnumbered, they were all going to die here in the dirt like the animals they were!

Unfortunately, her plan never came true, as an arrow flew past her and hit the ground right in front of her. The explosion blasted her back and she crashed into the ground. Nightshade flew through the trees and landed on the ground, pointing Gandiva at her head.

"Go ahead," Nightshade growled. "See what happens."

Thornment hissed and jumped back, retracting her whips. "This isn't over."

Thornment transformed and flew away, easily flying out of range of the laser blasts Ravage and Laserbeak shot at her.

"Little bitch." Nightshade hissed and turned to Soundwave. "Are you alright?"

"I have minimal damage," He told her. "It is not relevant."

"A broken arm and multiple lacerations is definitely relevant, Soundwave." She sighed. "Come on, let's get back to base and-"

A blue energy bolt hit her shoulder and she stumbled back. Clutching her arm, Nightshade saw a dozen Codarls charging at them, firing plasma bolts at the Cons, and running from them were Rumble and Frenzy.

"Those weapons...how…?" Nightshade gritted her teeth. "Thornment!"

She shot down one talos while Laserbeak and Songbird took care of another, but the humans still pressed their charge.

"Knockout, get that ground bridge!" Nightshade yelled.

The green vortex appeared behind them, and Soundwave limped into the portal along with the Minicons. Nightshade fired one more arrow before jumping into the bridge. The portal vanished before the Codarls could reach them, leaving their enemies in the dust

XXXXXX

"I'd say that was a successful test run of our new Talos weaponry, wouldn't you agree Thornment?" Pisces said, sounding quite pleased despite the circumstances.

He was still in his study, but with a human-sized hologram of Thornment standing next to him and looking quite pissed off at the moment.

"You damn fool!" She growled. "Why did you let them go?"

"It was to spread the word of our cause. It didn't matter much to me since they didn't get anything valuable." He saw the scowl on her face. "Don't be like that. We can't fight them with all these witnesses around. Fighting them would be counterproductive."

"You made me lose my prey! I had the spymaster at my mercy before the glitch you set free almost killed me!"

"It's not my fault you ignored my warnings to bring back-up." He replied, earning a plethora of cybertronians curses from her. "Relax, you will have other chances to kill them. But right now, we have more pressing matters to attend to."

He pointed at his desk and where there was a thick folder titled "Project: Uber" on the cover. Thornment cursed him again, but let the issue go…for now. "Fine. I'll head over to Wyoming with Aries. You owe me a Decepticon head, you stupid fish."

Pisces waved her off as her image vanished. Sighing, he walked over to his desk and took a sip of his vintage white wine, pressing a button on his phone to call up one of his researchers. "Stephanie, could you give me an update on Mr. Harkins' condition? I think it's time we went to the next phase of Project: Uber."


	11. Inhuman part 1

Chapter 11-Inhuman part 1

Inside an undisclosed location, the Zodiac general Pisces was in his personal lab working on a project that was almost four years in the making. He did so with an urgency he rarely displayed, mostly because he was close to hitting a breakthrough, and he wouldn't stop until he had something. The normally clean and refined Zodiac looked like he hadn't slept in days, his normally well-groomed hair slightly and his eyes red and sleep deprived. He was testing the limits of his stamina and endurance just to see this project through. His brothers and sisters noticed the change in his routine, but left him be, which was fine for him. He had no time dealing with a bunch of children playing soldier.

The lab was dark save for one light near the front of the room. Pisces sat bent of his work table, not moving from his hunched position as he worked nonstop on whatever his new obsession was. He heard the door swing open and the loud click-clack of high heels against the smooth floor. He knew that slow, predatory gait anywhere.

"Are you still working on that farce of a project of yours?" Aquarius asked, looking down on him like he was dirt on the bottom of her expensive designer boot.

"Are you and Aries still playing war games with the cybertronians?" Pisces smoothly retorted.

Aquarius scowled. She forgot Pisces was the wrong person to trade verbal barbs with. He was too clever for that. "Why aren't you aiding the science department on the Master project? We have a schedule to keep and a deadline to meet, you know. Don't forget your job."

"My job? I am doing my job, Aquarius. You, however, seem to have gone way off track and down the mountain slope." Pisces said. "Have you forgotten our mission?"

"I'm well aware of our plan, you fool, and the cybertronians are the key to that goal!"

"Really? And how's that coming along?" Pisces finally looked at her, giving her a mocking grin. "Deny it all you like, but the only reason you were able to find the Decepticon's body was by dumb luck and Thornment's involvement was just a crutch to cover your abysmal failures. Well-equipped we may be, but it's getting harder to fight the cybertronians. The Decepticons are now actively seeking out and destroying our installations, and even the Autobots are getting more ruthless in their dealings with us. We're losing too many soldiers, and more importantly, too many expensive talos."

Aquarius was starting to lose her patience. "Get to the point, you stupid fish!"

"Wars are not just won by luck or brute force." Pisces said. "Advanced technology and proper battle tactics are what define the outcome of a battle and ultimately, the war. History has proven that new innovations are the bridge between victory and defeat for both sides. And that is what we need."

"A new secret weapon? So I assume that you're working on something that could give us the winning edge." She hummed, tapping her chin. "That explains the basement dwelling. You always were too caught up in your little experiments."

"There's nothing little about my work, Aquarius." Pisces said with a hard edge in his tone. "And yes, I've been working on something to tip the scales in our favor. This is our answer."

He took a pair of tweezers and picked up a small red crystal no bigger than a diamond ring. Aquarius thought it was a ruby, but the crystal was glowing and radiating heat. Pisces smiled at her sudden interest in the pretty mineral.

"What is that?" She asked.

The smile Pisces gave her was all teeth and actually unsettled Aquarius. "Our path to evolution."

XXXXXX

It was late night when Ironhide was doing his recon in the state of Nebrask, in the middle of nowhere with the Minicon Undertone, who was the worst conversationalist Ironhide had ever met. Originally he was glad for the silence, chatter on the clock was dangerous and unprofessional, but the silence was getting to him and honestly, Ironhide felt like he was talking to himself most of the time. All he had were some good old country tunes to pass the time while they did their rounds. He wasn't one to complain about recon duty since it came with the job, but even he had to admit that driving around a desert countryside was boring.

'I'm starting to see why the humans talk smack about this place. Primus, I feel like shooting myself in the head just to stave off the boredom.' Ironhide thought. He checked some other radio stations for something more modern, but nothing caught his fancy. "Can't a mech get better music out here?"

Ratchet's voice called out over the comm-channel. _"Ironhide, this is Ratchet. Do you copy?"_

"I hear ya, doc. What's up?"

" _How are things out there?"_

"Dull and boring. I'm driving through the middle of nowhere with a Minicon who speaks through sign language. Things are just peachy." Ironhide grumbled. "I can hear you smiling, Ratchet."

" _Well, just hang in there a little longer, Ironhide. Jasper, Nebrask can't be that bad."_

"You've never been here."

" _True,"_ Ratchet chuckled. _"Well, I'll leave you to your solitude. See you later."_

The channel switched off and Ironhide grumbled some more. "Cheeky bastard."

Aside from almost running over a few wildlife who thought that it was safe to cross the road just when a pick-up truck was about to pass them, the next few minutes were quiet and uneventful. It wasn't until his recon neared its end that Ironhide's mission got some unwanted excitement.

"What's the hell?" He muttered.

A man was standing in the middle of the road. He was tall, taller than any other full grown human Ironhide had seen, and very muscular too, almost to the point of looking unproportioned because of his muscle mass. He was wearing a tight fitting sandy brown military uniform that had to be custom made for his size. He had healthy skin and neat, short blond hair and striking baby blue eyes.

Ironhide and Undertone brought up their holo-drivers and the Autobot honked his horn. "Get off the damn road!"

The man didn't even budge. In fact, he was smirking. Then what happened next would reaffirm Ironhide's complains about recon duty for the rest of his life.

The man's eyes glowed a bright, luminous blue and a ring of energy formed around his body. From their energized halo, a chain of energy spheres shot at Ironhide and Undertone, exploding around them with the force of a dozen tank shells, destroying the road in a chaotic display of power. Ironhide rolled across the ground and transformed to right himself.

Undertone had also transformed, and was immediately sprinting toward the man. The man grinned and created another energy wave that tore up more of the road with destructive bolts of energy. Undertone swiftly dodged the debris thrown at him and lunged at the superhuman, slashing his swords down on the man's shoulders. The blades cut into his flesh, but to Undertone's surprise, they were stopped short. The man's own muscle mass had stopped his blades completely!

"You'll have to hit me harder than that!" The man grinned and shrugged off the swords in his flesh before punching Undertone in the chest. The Minicon felt his chest cave in from that single punch and flew back a couple of feet before hitting the ground. He didn't get back up.

"Undertone!" Ironhide pointed his cannons at the man and fired. The human, despite his large bulk and size, jumped away and flew a good two feet through the air before landing back on the ground, skidding to a stop near the road.

"That's right. You better come at me with the intent to kill or you're going to die!" He shouted and sent more energy spheres at Ironhide.

The red Autobot avoided most of them, but two hit him in his right arm and lower abdomen. He hissed, it felt like getting hit by a high powered photon blast. The man charged at him, still unleashing his destructive payload on Ironhide and not letting up even as the Autobot fired a barrage of fission blasts at him.

Ironhide felt another sphere dig into his shoulder and burn away his armor like red hot plasma. This human was out to kill him and wasn't pulling his punches. When the man dodged his next laser blast, Ironhide threw a punch at him, slamming his fist directly into the man's crossed arms. The human felt his bones creak from the blow, but didn't break, which was good for him. Still, the punch sent him flying and he hit the ground hard enough to leave a crater.

To Ironhide's surprise, the man was still standing, and looked relatively unharmed save for his bruised arms.

'What the hell is this guy?' Ironhide thought. 'That punch should've smashed every bone in his body!'

Before he could react, an energy sphere exploded against his chest. He was blasted onto his back, his chest plate warped and smoking. He pushed himself up and glared at the smirking human.

"Sorry to do this to ya, big red, but orders are orders." The man's eyes began crackling with energy as he walked toward the downed Autobot. "I'll be sure to wear one of your gears as a ring in your memory."

Ironhide stood up but another sphere to his left leg shattered his knee and sent him back down again. Just as the man charged up for a final attack, a ground bridge opened up behind him. Optimus, Bulkhead and Skyfire ran out of the portal.

The man had no time to react when Optimus fired his ion rifle at the ground near him and blasted him of his feet. He slammed against the hard ground and cursed when he felt his shoulder dislocate. Looking up, he saw the Autobots disappearing into the bridge, which closed behind them.

"Well there goes any chance at a medal." He muttered and took out his radio. "Colossus to base, do you copy?"

" _We hear you, Colossus. What's your status?"_

"Broken shoulder and fractured bones, but still alive. And so is the target, sir. I'm sorry, sir, I failed."

" _Did you do well against him in combat?"_

"Yes, sir, the Autobot and his little friend didn't last long against me. Brought them both to their knees."

" _Then this mission wasn't a complete failure. Return to base, Colossus, you've done a good job."_

"Thank you, sir." Said Patrick O'Connor, known to his fellow soldiers as HMH Colossus.

XXXXXX

Once they were back at the Ark, Ironhide and Undertone were rushed to the medibay. Ratchet worked on Ironhide's injuries while leaving Undertone to Longarm, who worked on repairing the damages he suffered from the powerful punch he took to the chest Undertone's wounds weren't serious, but the punch he took almost caved in his laser core and caused an energon build up in his chest cavity that would've been lethal if left unattended for too long. Once he was sure his patients were taken care of, Ratchet placed Ironhide in another CR chamber and left to address the team's concerns.

"What's the diagnosis, doc?" Jazz asked.

"Ironhide and Undertone will recover, but the damages they received were serious. The human that attacked them was strong, and powerful enough to lay them both out." Ratchet walked over to a Teletran-1 terminal and brought up images of the burns on Ironhide's body.

They looked really bad. It was like someone branded Ironhide with a superheated drill that gored into his body. The energy blasts had left severe burns along Ironhide's arms, shoulders and chest, and his right leg was blasted off at the knee in a single shot. The warped armor pieces looked grotesque, and even Optimus cringed at the severity of the damages.

"See how his armor is warped? That's where he was repeatedly hit by those energy spheres the man shot at him," Ratchet pointed to each of the pictures. "And they could deal some serious and lasting damages if taken head on. Ironhide's thick armor saved him from taking more serious wounds that would've been fatal if he was hit in the right places."

"An esper did all that to him?" Moonracer muttered worriedly. She knew some espers on this world were strong, according to Arcee, but to be able to bring down a powerhouse like Ironhide?

"A powerful esper at that. Keep in mind that most espers are probably better equipped to fight us than most other humans. Ironhide's already had some altercations with them in the past." Prowls said.

"Is anyone gonna ask where the hell this guy came from?" Bulkhead said. "I mean, some man just pops out of nowhere and tries to slag one of our own. I'm no strategist, but this doesn't look like some random encounter to me."

"Bulkhead's right, this attack seems deliberate." Arcee said. That thought alone led to everyone coming to the same conclusion.

"OZ." Bumblebee growled. This situation seemed all too familiar to him. "Those people are the only ones who could stage an attack like this."

"So what do we do?" Skyfire asked.

"Remain on guard in case they attack again." Optimus answered. "Stay alert on recon duty. We will deploy on missions in pairs. We can't let them ambush us like they did Ironhide and Undertone."

The team was dismissed and Ratchet and Optimus shared a grim glance. Something about this attack seemed different than the others. They both knew OZ always attacked them with the intent to capture them alive, but this felt more like a test than a planned attack. This seemed like the start of something that was only going to get worse as time went on.

XXXXXX

Dr. Stephanie Bergen stood at the back of the crowd that assembled in the hangar bay of the OZ regional base. Soldiers and scientists who worked hard on this three year project waited anxiously for the return of their crowning achievement, HMH Colossus.

The man himself came riding in atop one of OZ's new armored carriers, the Tumbler, looking like Achilles after bringing down Troy. Everyone cheered and rushed him, shouting their praise like he was a war hero. To them, he was. Colossus was their first living test subject in the project, a culmination of all the blood, sweat and tears spent bringing this dream to fruition. He caught Stephanie's eye and winked at her, causing her to huff in disgust and look away.

This wasn't the first time the lumbering brute made a pass at her. Stephanie was a beauty for her age; a young woman with a fit athletic body honed from years of exploring remote areas of the world with long blond hair tied into a loose ponytail and sea green eyes. She wore a tight black bodysuit composed of a special material capable of deflecting small caliber bullets and a lab coat denoting her rank among the science division of OZ's research department.

Her great beauty was matched only by her legendary cynicism. The past three years working for OZ had made Stephanie consider suicide numerous times, mainly out of guilt for the horrors she helped bring out into the world. Unfortunately, as that was out of the question, she was forced to resort to taking her cigarette buds and putting them out on her arms and legs as some kind of coping measure. Depressing, yes, but the things they made her do was enough to make anyone anticipate the sweet release of death.

"Colossus!"

The crowd parted as Pisces entered the hangar, arms spread with a big smile on his well-formed face. He reached Colossus and hugged the taller man like a father greeting his beloved son. "Colossus, you wonderful man, you've done a great job tonight! I knew you'd do us proud!"

"Just doing my job, sir." Colossus said.

"Exactly, and soon there will be many more like you doing their part for OZ." Pisces said and turned to Stephanie. "You see, Dr. Bergen? This is the fruits of your labor. A new form of human being that can make espers more obsolete than the dinosaurs. You should be proud."

"I am. You can see how proud I am by my expression." Stephanie said dryly.

Pisces merely chuckled and left Colossus alone to leave the hangar. Stephanie followed him, knowing they had to get back to work. This success in the trial run meant that they had even more work to do in the long run. It didn't matter that she was sick and tired of working long hours into the night just to make superpowered beefcakes. This was her life now, and OZ owned it the minute she signed that accursed deal with them.

"What's next on the agenda?" She asked.

"Just a little last minute errand, my dear." He answered.

Her eyes narrowed at him. "What errand?"

Pisces didn't answer. He led Stephanie through the armory to the medical wing of the base, passing medical staff and wounded soldiers resting in their rooms before stopping at the room in a restricted section on the first floor. A room that belonged to a special patient. Pisces knocked on the door before entering.

"Ms. Beller?" Pisces said, stepping into the room. Good evening, how are you feeling today?"

Stephanie thought that was a cruel joke to even ask the question while the women was unable to speak.

Lying on a bed covered from head to toe in bandages was Josie Beller, former talos commander in the OZ military. A discharged Osean Army major, Beller was chosen by OZ to test run their experimental talos, Circuit Breaker. Stephanie heard from various reports that Beller was doing great until she battled against the Autobots last year. According to some sources, it was a little girl who not only brought down the Circuit Breaker talos but also short-circuited the bodysuit that gave her powers, leading to a serious injury that left her body paralyzed save for her right arm.

Even half a year later, Beller's condition hadn't improved much. The parts of her body that weren't covered showed skin that was pink with visible burns, and her hair had yet to fully grow back, with bandages hugging her scalp. Her left arm and legs were completely limp and unresponsive, save for her right arm, which was placed in a hardness. Despite this, Beller's eyes were still live and vibrant, holding a great deal of anger at her situation. Her brown eyes, once full of arrogance and superiority, now held pure hatred. Hatred for the aliens that put her in this sorry state.

"Sorry I haven't been visiting lately. I've been very busy with something that could turn the tide in our war against the aliens. But I have someone I want you to meet." Pisces waved a hand to Stephanie. "This is Stephanie Bergen, one of my associates helping me work on a project I call Project: Uber. I won't go into details, but you've just recently tested positive in a blood test to confirm if you're liable to take part in the project. It involves a procedure to enhance the human body."

Beller's eyes widened, as did Stephanie's. She wasn't expecting Pisces to already work on turning another human into an Enhanced individual. He wasn't kidding when he said that he didn't want to waste any time.

"The process I'm talking about is very risky, even for those people who are eligible. It is a painful and violent transformation, and you will be wishing for death before you're even five minutes in. however, once it's over, not only will you be fully healed, but you will be stronger. Strong enough to fight the Autobots, Decepticons and anyone else that gets in our way." Pisces continued strongly. "But I can't do this without your permission. So what do you say, Beller? Do you want to take the plunge to become powerful?"

Beller's breathing increased and her eyes narrowed into angry slits as she forced her hand to clench into a weak fist. Pisces smiled at her determination.

"I'll take that as a yes."

Pisces arranged to have Beller moved from the medical wing into an underground sub-level, which was built like a nuclear bunker, but scarier. Stephanie, Pisces and Beller took an elevator down to the sub-level down to a heavily reinforced room that was bare save for a chair in the middle. Rolling her into the room on a medical bed, Stephanie and Pisces gently lifted Beller's limp body into the chair and strapped her wrists and ankles to it.

'What…are they doing?' Beller wondered. How dangerous was this procedure if they were strapping her down like a prisoner on death row?

"Just a safety precaution, Beller. As I said, the conversion process is rather violent and painful." Pisces told her, as if that explanation was supposed to make her feel better.

Stephanie checked her restraints one more time before standing up and giving the woman a look of pity. She held the black briefcase she brought with her up to Pisces, who opened it and took out some tweezers. Reaching inside, he took out a tiny red crystal, which didn't look very scary to Beller, but she felt her heart rate increase when Pisces neared her.

"Fear not, Josie Beller." Pisces said, holding her head in place while lowering the crystal toward her face. "Once the pain is over, you will be reborn as someone stronger. A true warrior of the Zodiac."

Stephanie looked away as Pisces placed the crystal on Beller's forehead. Nothing happened for a second, but the Beller started to feel her forehead start to heat up. In just a few seconds that mild warmth evolved into scalding pain, and in a minute it reached unbearably painful levels. Her eyes bulged and her mouth hung open in a silent scream, but she couldn't move. Her right hand twisted violently in its restraint, and the leather strap dug into her skin. The pain spread from her head down to her shoulders, to her chest and the rest of her body. Tears ran down her face as she underwent the first phase of her rebirth.

At that moment Josie Beller knew pain on an intimate level.

XXXXXX

"A present?"

Ratchet's comment was in response to some surprising news from Bumblebee, who had just interrupted one of his scanning sessions with Ironhide. The scout didn't look too apologetic as he dropped the bomb on Ratchet.

"Yeah, a present for Gina." Bumblebee said, blinking at Ratchet's confused expression. "It's for her birthday, Ratchet, remember? It's in a few days."

Ratchet's eyes widened, giving a surprised little "oh" at that piece of news. Despite his acute knowledge of alien physiology, he wasn't really keen on learning anything else other than things of the medical field. Learning about other cultures was something Jazz and Bumblebee were adept at. But still, he couldn't help but feel guilty for not remembering Gina's birthday. She spent more time with him than any of the other bots, even her "student" in all things Terran, Bumblebee.

Gina had become surprisingly important to Ratchet's personal life. She was like one of those young Autobot cadets who would ask him what Cybertron was like before the war, before the senate and the Functionists, when the planet was golden and prosperous. She was smart, curious and very acute in learning new skills. She took to learning how to read cybertronian like a textbook and her ability to remember key moments of his race's history was amazing. When she told him that he was like a grandfather to her, Ratchet honestly felt touched. And to think that he had the audacity to forget the most important day in her life.

"I don't know what kind of birthday present you can give a girl who makes robots and laser weapons in her spare time, Bee. She's not the type of girl you can just give flowers and a cake to and call it a day." Ratchet told him. "Has she been hinting at wanting anything? Making discreet suggestions, sneaking glances at anything important?"

"Well," Bumblebee rubbed the back of his head. "She hasn't really talked about her birthday all that much. In fact, I think she forgot."

"Forgot? How can she forget about her own birthday?" Ratchet asked, and then put up a hand. "Wait, I know. She's usually forgetful with things like birthdays."

Bumblebee nodded. "Especially with all the craziness that's been happening. Granted, she often has her head in the clouds after she got back from Cybertron."

Ratchet frowned at the mention of that harrowing mission. To hear of an alien, much less a human, actually interfacing with Vector Sigma was unbelievable. Gina had went into great detail about everything up to that blank point in her memory. He was very thorough in his tests of her for any sign of residual radiation poisoning or defects from the abnormal transportation. But he never did see if there were any mental side effects.

He hoped it was nothing, but when dealing with an anomaly such as Vector Sigma, it was better to be safe than sorry.

XXXXXX

The red and gold armor of the Prometheus clashed with the verdant greenery of the wet foliage and fallen leaves it crushed underfoot as it trudged through the dense vegetation. It stuck out like a sore thumb, but fortunately it wasn't being deployed on any missions, at least not an official one. Darren looked at the soggy forest around him from within his cockpit and sighed. Why did Gina come out here of all places?

He had never been to Azteca before, not even to retrieve a Minicon, but walking through the rainforest now, he knew that he hoped he would never come here again. The humidity was high and it rained nonstop, on top of the unholy amount of killer insects that made his skin crawl just crawling around unseen places. Even inside his talos he felt like he was sitting in a sauna. But he couldn't exactly call it quits, he just managed to detect the Athena's signal.

Her trail led to a large cave that extended deep underground, a cave system that was rather prevalent in Azteca. He saw Gina's white and purple talos parked outside the mouth of the cave, kneeling in its standby position. Gina sat next to its feet, staring out at the rain alone. When she saw Prometheus walking through the trees and waved him over.

"Hey, Darren." Gina greeted him. "Want to sit out here in the rain with me?"

'Thanks, but I'm good.' That was what he wanted to say, but instead he said, "Sure."

He parked his talos next to hers and climbed down to the ground. He jogged over to her into the cave and sat down next to her on the cold, damp rocks. Together the two children sat in silence watching the rain pour endlessly over the forest. Darren, confused as to why Gina was even here to begin with, allowed himself to enjoy the peaceful calm of nature for a few minutes before asking the money question. "So…what are you doing out here again?"

"Just…thinking." Gina said vaguely.

Darren nodded and waited for her to add on to that. But she didn't, making him sigh and ask, "About what?"

"Things," She replied. "A lot of things that I'm trying to figure out right now."

Darren didn't like what he was seeing. This wasn't the nerdy girl he grew up with; the girl whose eyes would light up at the news of some new discovery that was made or learning more about what alien life the Autobots had encountered before coming to Terra. He was used to that girl, not the brooding talos pilot who had Gina's face. And this wasn't the first time she acted like this, the other children noticed a subtle change in her attitude, her long moments saying nothing and thinking to herself, her melancholy expression when she thought no one was looking. The fact that she didn't even remember her birthday was just as startling.

"Gina, what's wrong? I know something's bothering you. You've been acting strange ever since you got back from Cybertron." Darren crossed his arms and gave her a stern look. "Tell me, Gina. I know I can help you in some way."

Gina looked over at him and gave him a small smile that didn't reach her eyes. She stood up and walked out into the rain. Darren watched with wide eyes as she stood out in the downpour, arms outstretched as she let the rain fall on her. It was like she was trying to wash away the worries she'd been having all day.

"Darren, do you know what Vector Sigma is?" Gina asked.

Darren blinked. "Um, didn't the Autobots call it a supercomputer or something?"

"Yes, that's what they see it as, but…" Gina bit her lip as she thought back to that moment when she entered Vector Sigma's chamber-the Primal Wellspring as Optimus called it. "I touched it, Darren. As in literally merged with it, mind and body. It doesn't work like some supercomputer. I felt like I was communicating with some higher intelligence."

"Like…a god?"

"I don't know." She sighed. She wasn't an overly religious person who really believed in a specific god, though her belief in a higher power did increase after fighting the dolems and seeing their power. As a scientist, she had to look at everything with a certain degree of skepticism, but after her experience with Vector Sigma, she couldn't describe it as anything else.

all that with Vector Sigma, she couldn't describe it as anything else but divine.

"It was like I was flying through a sea of stars. I could see the whole universe, Darren. Stars, planets, nebulae, everything. All the while I felt something roaming through my mind, taking information from me while giving some information in return. I want to call it very advanced technology, Darren, but I just can't bring myself to see it as just some computer."

Darren, despite hearing her story three times, couldn't keep the look of awe off his face. It sounded like Gina had seen God himself and was change profoundly by it. Gina was careful to keep the news of the cybertronian glyph on the back of her neck. Seeing that she was lost in her thoughts, Darren thought it would be best to change the subject to something more light-hearted for both their sakes.

"So, your birthday is coming up in a few days." He said, trying to look innocent. "You excited?"

"I forgot all about it to be honest. Everything's been so crazy, and then we have this thing with OZ again…" She shrugged. Then she narrowed her eyes at him. "You aren't planning a surprise party, are you?"

"What? No! I would never do something so obvious." Darren snorted. There goes that plan. "I was just thinking of something simpler…like fireworks!"

Gina giggled. "Fireworks?"

"Yeah. I'm sure I can get Wheeljack to cook something up." He said, then muttered, "Gaia knows he causes everything he touches to explode."

Gina smiled and walked back over to Darren. She caught him off guard by throwing her arms around him and pulling him into a tight hug. "Really Darren, its fine. You don't have to go jump over the moon for me. But…if you really want to do something special, then we can go out."

"G-go out?" Darren blushed.

"Yes, as in going out on a da-"

There was a loud boom and the ebony form of the Enyo came crashing through the trees, ruining the sweet moment. Darren and Gina glared up at Annie as she poked her head out of her cockpit, but were immediately concerned when they saw the look of alarm on her face.

"Annie? What's wrong? Did something happen?" Darren asked.

"You two better get back to base quick. Sara and Skyfire just found something!" Annie said.

XXXXXX

It was only thanks to an odd team-up between Sara and Skyfire and Comettor that the Autobots made this discovery. Though her attitude towards the Autobots was still frosty, Sara's relationship with them was less tense (as in she made no more threats at them) so she wasn't that opposed to working with them so long as it didn't interfere with her protection of Gina.

Comettor detected a small OZ location in Canadia via a stray transmission they just happened to come across on the communications band. Its size meant it was lightly defended, and that allowed Skyfire to swoop in and quickly bombard the base by herself. As she took out the automated defenses, Sara rushed inside and (brutally) took care of the human soldiers inside.

In all the chaos, the soldiers failed to completely wipe out their computers, so after they were either run off or killed (mostly on Sara's part), the android got to work in hacking their database and gleaning what information she could. Most of the data was heavily encrypted but Sara was nothing if not dedicated, and she managed to decode something that had to be shared with Gina as soon as possible.

"What did you say?" Gina whispered disbelievingly.

"It's your father, Ms. Gina, Theodore Harkins." Sara said softly, making sure to make the blow as soft as possible for her charge's sake. "I have confirmed that he is in the custody of OZ, more specifically one of their generals, Pisces."

The news came as a shock to Gina, and Sureshock quickly helped her sit down before she fainted. Gina's father was an archaeology professor who went abroad on various projects who vanished three years ago during an expedition to Belka. Neither Gina nor her mother knew what happened to him or if he was still alive…until now.

Seeing that Gina needed time to process this, Optimus took control of the conversation. "Do you know where Mr. Harkins is, Sara?"

Sara shook her head. "Unfortunately I do not. All I know is that he is being held prisoner somewhere, and is involved with a top secret OZ project called Project: Uber."

Gina gasped and shot to her feet. "Oh god, they're experimenting on him?!"

"We don't know that for sure, Gina." Prowl said.

"You don't know that! Those freaks will hurt anyone if it got them what they wanted!" She yelled at him. "Look at what happened to Debbie!"

"Gina, calm down." Darren wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "We'll find him. We just need more information or we'll be the ones in trouble."

"I am decoding the rest of the information as we speak in my cyber-brain, but I do have a possible lead on where to look." Sara turned to Optimus, who lifted her onto the Teletran-1 terminal. Connecting a plug from the back of her neck into the console, Sara downloaded some data from her cyber-brain into Teletran and brought up some documents on the monitor. "There is a large OZ facility located in the state of Sioux. It's one of the more relevant outposts in the west coast, and it might have the information we need."

"But that means getting someone on the inside, and OZ doesn't take kindly to intruders. The amount of soldiers inside the base will be large, and that's not taken into the account the number of Talos." Prowl deduced the numbers in his head, and he did not like the possible outcome of an all-out assault on the base. "Our chances of winning such a fight is low, Prime. They have numbers and resources on us. Not to mention we don't know if that femme they're working with is there. There's too many wild cards to factor in."

"Whoa, we can't just throw in the towel before we've even seen the place!" Bumblebee exclaimed.

"Use your head, Bumblebee. If we attack head on, we'll only suffer casualties, and we don't know enough about the base to infiltrate it." Prowl said. "I'm sorry, but those are the facts."

"SCREW THE FACTS!"

Everyone turned to Gina, who had screamed at them with a fierce look of anger on her pretty features. She blinked away tears as she gave the Autobots a piece of her mind. "I spent three years worrying for my father, and now that he's alive you people want to hang back? If you tin cans won't help my dad, I'll go myself."

"Gina, that's suicide." Arcee said.

"I don't give a damn. My dad is alive and I want him back, even if I have to fight the Zodiac or whatever they throw at me. I'm not going to let him be used as some science experiment!"

"And we'll be right there to help her." Annie said.

"She's got that right." Darren nodded.

"Same here." High Wire spoke up. "Centurion will help her alone if we have to."

"I understand your frustration, but even with the Athena's stealth capabilities, you won't be able to fight them all off." Prowl said.

"How about we let the real commander here decide for us before we start tearing each other's throats out?" Jazz said and turned to Optimus. "Boss bot, it's your call. What should we do?"

Optimus thought on it. Prowl had a point, rushing in without a plan or a clear idea of what they were dealing with was tantamount to suicide. On the other hand, the kids would no doubt go off on their own to save the man, even if it meant fighting off the Autobots to do so. Granted, their talos were definitely stronger than the regular mecha fielded by OZ. Optimus crossed his arms and sighed, giving his team a look.

"The sole purpose of being an Autobot is to preserve all life, even a single individual. I'm sorry, Prowl, but my hands are tied on this one." Optimus said and nodded to Gina. "I swear on the Allspark, Gina, we will save your father."

Gina smiled and wiped the tears from her eyes. "Thank you, Optimus."

"But we still don't know how we're going to hit them." Arcee pointed out. "With all the soldiers and weapons they have, how are we even going to get close to the base?"

"Leave that to me." Prowl said gruffly. "I'll think of a plan that's at has a percentage of at least a 75% success rate."

"Very good, Prowl." Optimus looked at the rest of his team. "Autobots, children, get ready to move out. Today, we strike at OZ."

XXXXXX

As expected, the OZ base looked nothing like a secret facility. Living up to their method of hiding in plain sight, their base was disguised as a large farm. A pleasant little white house sat next to a huge barn with a massive corn field a few feet away from the dirt road. There was another barn house that acted as an autoshop, large enough to accommodate a cybertronian Optimus' size. To the average person, it'd look like a normal piece of land on the countryside that was pretty to look at when passing by.

But the Autobots weren't fooled. In their past experiences with OZ, they learned to expect the unexpected and not to let their guard down because they were humans. OZ liked to take refuge in locations either so far out of the way that no one can find them or in places no one would think to look at, at first glance. They could tell from the farmland alone that this base was a major operations center that held dozens of soldiers and talos.

The plan was a basic divide and conquer maneuver. The Autobots would draw out the bulk of the base's forces through a frontal assault while the children used that opening to sneak into the base. Annie's Enyo talos would ferry the children, Centurion and Sara into the base, rendered invisible via the cloaking device Wheeljack hooked up to the talos. They would've gone with the Athena since it was more stealth oriented, but not everyone could fit in its cockpit.

It was night when the Autobots drove up to the farm. Once they were within eyesight of the base they transformed to bipedal mode and pointed their weapons at anything that looked valuable.

"Autobots attack!"

Upon Prime's order, the Autobots opened fire at once and attacked the house and barn with a barrage of blaster fire, lighting up the dark corn field with a bevy of lights. The assault destroyed the house and damaged the barn, but only a few seconds later well-hidden entry hatches located under the corn maze and fields slid apart to allow HS tanks to roll out into the open. From the autoshop, another entry hatch disguised as a garage slid open and Codarl mecha began running out to fight the invaders. The image of the pleasant little farm was destroyed by the ensuing battle between the humans and the Autobots.

"Looks like we got their attention!" Bulkhead said and ducked under a barrage of laser bolts that flew too close to his head. "Whoa! When did these guys get laser weapons?"

"Their new friend probably gave them a little upgrade!" Arcee said. A Codarl charged her shooting plasma blasts at her. She quickly charged it and severed its arms with a swift slash from her swords before slicing off its legs too. "Took them longer than I thought for them to get to that level."

"Cut the chatter and focus on the fight." Prowl grunted, keeping his head low to avoid the tank shells the HS tanks were shooting at him. "These guys are more heavily defended than I thought."

"We just need to stall them for as long as possible. We'll hold this position until our friends are done." Optimus said, blasting the legs off a Codarl.

Not too far away from the battle, the cloaked form of the Enyo glided along the ground, undetected thanks to its heavy sol particle emission. In its arms were Darren and Gina, clad in their protective exo-suits, while Centurion and Sara rode on Enyo's back. After some deft maneuvers on Annie's part, they landed next to the barn and waited for three Codarls to exit the lift before running inside.

Darren grunted as the talos' rough movements nearly made him lose his grip on its arm. "Watch it, Annie. You almost made me fall off."

" _Do you want me to get you in fast or not?"_ Annie said. _"We're on a tight schedule here, people."_

"Not now, guys." Centurion cautioned.

Gina fingered her plasma blaster nervously. She felt vulnerably going into a dangerous place without the protection of her talos. Her pilot suit might provide her with some physical enhancements, but that meant little when dealing with the Zodiac. Darren noticed her unease and gripped her hand as a show of support.

"Don't worry, Gina. We're right with you." Darren said, giving her a smile.

Gina smiled and squeezed his hand back. "Thanks."

" _We're almost at the bottom. Once we've stopped, I'll have to torch the goons waiting for the elevator, so you guys will have to move fast."_ Annie said. She readied her talos arm cannons. _"Oh, and cover your ears. It's going to get loud down here."_

Just as she said, there were a group of Codarls waiting for the elevator at the bottom, and they were swiftly blown away by the beam cannons on Enyo's forearms. Alarms started blaring but Annie ignored them as she mowed down the enemies in front of her. Rapid fire beam blasts fired from the rotary cannons in the talos' forearms easily destroyed any talos unlucky enough to be in her way, and forced the reserve units to take cover from her assault.

As Annie did her thing, Darren, Gina, Sara and Centurion ran through the halls leading out of the docking bay. The clock was ticking and they had to move fast.

XXXXXX

The Zodiac general Scorpio watch watched the battle above with a small smile. He stood in the base's command center watching the Autobots fight the Codarls and HS tank battalions with the disposition of a man going out on a stroll. He hardly seemed worried that the Autobots were attacking a major installation that was supposed to be secret, probably because he was confident in their ability to repel them.

"Sir?" The female officer spoke up. "We're got intruders in Section A-2. An unknown talos has infiltrated the docking bay and started attacking out forces. There are also four more intruders heading toward the left wing."

Scorpio raised a delicate eyebrow. "Oh? Are they human?"

"Two of them, the third is cybertronian and the fourth…is an unknown."

Scorpio's eyes narrowed and he ran a hand through his bright orange hair. Eye glowing a bright amber, the general fastened his jacket and stood up from his seat. "I'll take care of the Autobots above."

"And the intruders, sir?"

"Send Pisces' new pets to take care of them. I have no need to fight children and little robot dolls." Scorpio said uncaringly.

He was a Zodiac after all. Fighting children and insignificant robot aliens was beneath him.

XXXXXX

Outside, the Autobots were still fighting the OZ forces and they were meeting some unexpected complications that made the battle harder than they thought. Not only were the Codarls equipped with energon powered plasma rifles, they were also given upgrades to their servo-motor systems and OS that made them move faster and hit harder. One on one, this didn't mean much, but in large groups, this meant that they posed a serious threat to the Autobots. Combine that with the kinetic shells and plasma bursts being fired from the upgraded HS tanks, and they had a monster on their hands.

"How many are there?" Bulkhead asked, hissing as a shell hit his shoulder.

"At least three dozen talos." Prowl said. "It's not their numbers that's giving us a problem, it's their firepower. Sooner or later, they'll push harder when they realize that we're not advancing as much as we should."

"Well let's make the show more convincing!" Skyfire said. "We gotta give the brats some time!"

Suddenly a blue laser beam shot from the smoking remains of the house and hit Skyfire in the chest. She stumbled back and fell over from the attack and Arcee and Bumblebee rushed to get her to her feet as another blast shot over their heads. Optimus and Jazz returned fire at where the attack came from, destroying the rest of the house. From the flames, a large talos leapt out of the wreckage and landed on the dirt road.

The talos was vastly different from the other ones they were fighting. Instead of a humanoid frame, it was shaped like a scorpion with red and purple armor, reaching around 21 feet length wise and sporting two large claws with energon powered laser emitters inside. The tip of its stinger was a laser cannon that drew power from the palladium reactor that powered it. This talos was the personal unit of the Zodiac Scorpio, the Skorpios.

"Is that a giant bug?" Skyfire groaned.

Scorpio targeted Optimus and fired two beams from its claws. Optimus dodged it, but the armor panels on its back flipped open and shot four missiles at him that caught peppered the corn field with explosions. Jazz fired his photon rifle at the talos, but the Skorpios quickly avoided the blasts and shot back at them.

"From what I can see, only a few of you are worth fighting here. I don't see how Aries could fail so spectacularly in fighting you aliens off." Scorpio commented.

"You haven't seen what we can do, yet." Jazz said.

"Oh really?"

Scorpio fired another volley of missiles that forced the Autobots to scatter. Jazz back-flipped from the flames, but Scorpio shot a beam that hit his leg and sent him tumbling.

"I'm not impressed." Scorpio said.

XXXXXX

Darren, Gina, Sara and Centurion ran through the halls toward their destination, the base's computer room where they stored their information. They ran into a couple of soldiers sent to stop them, but Sara took care of them with her blades and palm blasters. Eventually they reached a large room that held a lot of weapons.

"What is this place?" Centurion asked, looking around for any threats.

"Must be their armor. Look at all these weapons." Darren scanned the various assault rifles and launchers hanging in cages, most of them taken by soldiers being deployed to the field. "How do they pay for all this stuff?"

"They're a secret terrorist organization. I imagine they have a lot of influential people on their payroll." Gina said. But she was more focused on some of the larger containers. They held items that were of greater importance than mere weapons; pieces of Flamewar's armor, Jazz's arm and…Barricade's head. "Jinkies!"

"Where did they get that?" Darren said.

"Would you believe me if I said that it was found?"

Centurion grabbed the children and jumped back as the spot they were just standing in was vaporized in a burst of blue energy. He placed them down and stood in front of them with Sara as a large man walked into the room. HMH Colossus shook his head upon seeing the children and sighed.

"Man, this is a bummer. Saddled with fighting a bunch of kids. That's not going to look good on my record."

"We've fought Decepticons that could torch you ten times over, pal. Don't mess with us!" Gina growled.

"Yeah, yeah, you say that. But considering I brought an Autobot to his knees, you should probably reconsider fighting me. I don't want to hurt you kids, so go back the way you came and no one will get hurt."

'So this is the guys who beat Ironhide and Undertone.' Darren thought. 'He looks like he took steroids on top of steroids!'

"I'm not going anywhere!" Gina yelled. "You're going to have to throw me out, you mindless bru-"

Colossus sprinted forward at Gina and covered the entire distance between them in just a few seconds. He reached a large hand toward Gina, but Centurion grabbed his face and slammed him into the floor, casing the metal panels under them to shatter and dent from the force of the blow. Sara pulled Gina back as Darren telekinetically tore apart the metal panels in the walls and threw them at the man. Colossus only felt minor discomfort as two metal sharps stabbed his shoulders and threw a punch at Centurion. The gestalt dodged the punch, but he felt the rush of air whistled past his face from how hard that punch came at him. He jumped back over to Darren, who also prepared to fight.

"Gina, Sara, head to the server room. We'll handle this guy." Darren said.

"What? No!" She protested. "You can't-"

"We will stall him." Centurion said. "That's all we need to do."

Gina bit her lip, not wanting to just leave them alone. Darren smiled and grabbed her hand to comfort her before turning to Sara. "Keep her safe, okay?"

Sara nodded. "Affirmative."

Sara pulled Gina past Colossus to the other side of the room. Colossus made to go after them, but a laser blast from Centurion slammed into his head and made him stumble. Though the laser blast didn't do much damage, it still hurt. Colossus glared at the two and cracked his neck.

"Stall me, he says. Man you kids are stupid. You've been playing hero too long, little boy." Colossus growled.

"This is coming from the walking science experiment." Darren said. "Before we start, can I get your name before I wreck your shit?"

"Major Patrick O'Connor, but you can call me HMH Colossus. The first of a new race of humans who shall lead the vanguard of OZ's future." Colossus grinned. "Before we get this party started, let's take this outside. There's a lot of expensive merchandise here that I don't want to scratch."

Colossus shot forward and grabbed Darren and Centurion in his large hands before leaping through the ceiling, tearing through it with his energy halo.

XXXXXX

Gina and Sara managed to make it to the server room with little interference, aside from two soldiers whom Sara quickly put down. They made it to the room and Sara got to work on using her physical uplink to take over the base's defense systems.

"I'm preparing to disable the facility's automated weapons above ground." Sara announced.

"Wait, can you make it so that the turrets target the OZ forces?"

"The turrets are based on an IFF systems and attack anything that doesn't have an encoded OZ IP signal." Sara explained. "Rewiring them to attack friendly forces will take some time."

"Just do your best, Sara. Our friends are counting on us."

XXXXXX

"I'm starting to chafe here, guys!" Skyfire grunted, punching a Codarl's head off before shooting down another one. Behind her, Bulkhead smashed apart a tank that was shooting at her. "How long are the brats going to take?"

"Just a little longer, Skyfire!" Prowl said.

The corn field was a burning mess littered with destroyed talos and tanks. There were still a number of talos giving them trouble, but the hardest enemy to fight was the Skorpios. Optimus and Prowl were fighting Scorpio, though the talos was heavily armed, built with combat against cybertronians in mind.

"Come on! Show me a good time!" Scorpio said, shooting beams from his claws at the two Autobots. One beam hit Jazz in the shoulder while another grazed Prime's legs as he rushed Scorpio and grabbed the talos by its claws. "Get off me!"

He pointed his stinger cannon at Prime and fired. Optimus dodged the blast and wrestled with the talos to knock it off balance. While Scorpio grappled with Prime, he noticed that the automated turrets that were shooting at the Autobots had stopped firing and aimed at the OZ mechanized forces before resuming their attack.

"What the hell is going on?" Scorpio growled. "Command, what are you doing?"

" _S-Someone's hacked our defense systems and took control of the turrets, sir! They're already rewriting the IFF signal!"_

As if to confirm the officer's words, the launchers already targeted Scorpios and shot two missiles at him. They slammed into the side of the Skorpios, almost knocking it over. Scorpio cursed and wrestled out of Prime's grip before slamming his stinger into Jazz's chest and backing away. His mecha's enhanced armor took the blunt of the missile's damage, but he won't be able to take another direct hit like that.

Jazz looked around at the automated defenses as they started attacking their own forces. "What's going on?"

"It must be Sara's work. She's the only one who can do something like this." Optimus said. The other Autobots smiled.

"That means they made it in!" Bumblebee cheered. "Sweet! I knew they could do it."

Prowl allowed himself a small smile as he recharged his blaster. "I didn't think they could make it, but there's always that five percent chance. Our chances of success have increased somewhat."

The good mood was cut short when a blue explosion completely tore apart the front half of the barn. Optimus turned to the burst of energy and saw three figures emerge from it. He recognized Darren and Centurion immediately, and they were fighting a large, muscular man who fit Ironhide's description of his attacker. He created energy spheres around him that tore apart everything they touched and forced Darren back, who summoned telekinetic shields to block the energy bursts before they could touch him or Centurion.

Then he cried out as Darren's shield was completely broken by a single punch from the man and the force of the backlash threw Darren back into the cornfield. "Darren!"

XXXXXX

"No!" Gina gasped. She saw Darren hit the ground and roll into the cornfield with the superhuman running straight for him. There was no way this man could be some esper. No esper was this powerful! "Sara, you've got to help him!"

"They're out of the range from the turrets." Sara said.

"At least draw his attention to give-"

"So you're the little mole digging around in here."

Gina and Sara spun around to see a woman standing there. The young woman looked like a professional cage fighter with a toned and evidently muscular physique that didn't hamper her femininity. She had strawberry blonde hair that reached the top of her shoulders and glowing electric blue eyes that crackled with energy. It took Gina a moment to realize that she recognized this woman.

"Circuit Breaker?" She said.

"The name's Josephine Beller, or Major Beller to you, brat." Beller smirked. "And I definitely remember you."

"But…how? I saw you get electrocuted by your own tech! You should be dead!"

"Well, I'm not, though not for lack of trying on your part. Because of you and your alien buddies, I had to endure a year of agonizing pain recovering from my injuries and I couldn't even move my fucking toes! You left me weak and in pain, but OZ has made a new woman out of me!" Beller snarled. "I'm going to get my share of blood, either from you or those walking trash cans!"

Gina took out her plasma blaster. "Sara, download everything that looks important and run!"

Sara's eyes widened. "But, Ms. Gina-!"

"Just do it!" Gina yelled and pointed the blaster at Beller's chest.

Beller scoffed. "Please, little girl. You're not going to shoot me-"

She was cut off by a powerful invisible force slamming into her and sending her crashing through the wall. The kinetic force from Gina's tractor beam gauntlets sent her into the hallway and into the adjacent wall. The force alone should've broken some bones, but she only felt dazed. Gina jumped through the hole and shot her blaster into Beller's chest, burning a hole into her shirt, but only leaving reddened, irritating skin that burned on contact.

'That should've killed her!' Gina thought. Getting hit head on by a plasma blast at close range would've burned a hole through her torso. 'Okay then, let's take it up a notch.'

Gina increased the power output on her blaster and shot at Beller again. The blast caught Beller in the chest again, but it did little to slow her down. The woman stomped forward, inconvenienced but not overwhelmed, as if pushing through snow. Gina already gave up on using her blaster for a kill shot when they can barely burn through her chest cavity.

Beller grinned and leapt forward, smashing through computers and tables as she got close to Gina. Before the girl knew it, Beller slammed her fist into the side of her head. It was only thanks to the exo-suit that Gina was still alive, because that punch would've snapped her neck like a twig. Even still, Gina still felt the blow and her whole world went blank for a moment. She quickly forced herself to recover, and punched Beller in the face hard enough to daze her, allowing her to grab the woman by the throat.

"My turn!"

Gina punched Beller in the chest, smashing her through the wall into another room. She leapt forward and punched the woman to the floor.

These were strength enhanced punches that would normally break bones, but to Beller, they barely hurt. She was stronger now, more durable and resilient. Still, it would do for a little girl to lay a smackdown on her during her trial run.

Gina went to punch Beller again, but the redhead caught her fist and squeezed. Her inhuman strength was too much for the girl's exo-suit and she broke the flex-fiber in the suit's hand, along with Gina's hand itself. The blonde gave a pained scream and fell to her knees in pain with Beller looming over her.

"My turn." She snarled.

She punched Gina in the head again, this time smashing off a piece of her helmet to reveal her left eye. Beller picked Gina up and threw her through the wall with no more effort than a kid throwing a softball.

XXXXXX

"Still standing, kid? You got balls!" Colossus laughed, his eyes emitting blue sparks.

Centurion helped Darren to his feet. "You okay?"

"I'm still in one piece, though I did see my life flash before my eyes." Darren groaned. "No wonder this guy took down Ironhide. Any ideas on how to take him?"

"I will get in close. Cover me." Centurion said.

Centurion lunged at Colossus, who manifested his energy halo and fired a string of energy spheres at him. Darren formed a TK barrier around Centurion as the gestalt ran in close to the superhuman and slashed his thigh with his vibro-blade. Colossus hissed and tried to backhand Centurion, but he ducked and punched his face. Darren shot a plasma blast at Colossus's face before lifting a large block of stone and dirt over his head to slam down on the man. Colossus easily broke through the block and lunged at Darren.

"Shit!" Darren jumped back and formed a shield to block Colossus's next punch, which was strong enough to bounce off his shield and knock him back. When he tried to get up, Colossus grabbed his neck and held him in the air.

"Darren!" Centurion shouted.

XXXXXX

Every part of Gina's body hurt. Getting her hand broken, then thrown through a wall had paralyzed her with pain. Having never fought without the aid of her Talos, she never knew how ungodly terrible the pain of getting hit in battle hurt. She could barely move her body. But she knew that if she wanted to live, then she had to force herself to fight back. She wasn't going to die down here!

'How is Beller still alive?' Gina thought. She remembered vividly that Beller was seriously electrocuted from her own malfunctioning power suit (it was hard to forget that gruesome sight). She should've either been killed on the spot or paralyzed for life. She never had those powers of hers either. OZ must have done something to her, given her powers on top of physical enhancements. The same with that Colossus guy.

Forcing her eyes open, Gina saw that she was thrown into the generator room that provided power to the entire base. She could see her only exit just a few feet away from her. If she forced herself to ignore the pain, then she could probably make it there before Beller reached her.

" _Ms. Gina-zzt-I have downloaded all the data I could acquire. I'm coming to assist you."_ Sara said through the speaker of Gina's damaged helmet.

Beller arrived, smashing through the wall with her fists, eyes glowing dangerously. Energy crackled around her, burning holes into the floor.

"S-Sara, call Darren and Annie." Gina coughed, clutching her broken hand. "Make sure they're okay. I can handle this."

" _No you can't. I'm not leaving you!_ " Gina smiled at the urgency in the android's voice. Seems like Sara was starting to learn how to have emotions now. But Gina wasn't going to risk her life like this.

"I'll be fine. Just go and keep them safe."

Silence followed. _"…I understand. And be careful Ms. Gina."_

Gina cut the feed and shakily stood up before a smirking Beller.

"Ready for round two, bitch?" Beller asked.

Gina responded by pulling out another little invention she made with Roll Bar, a sonic weapon she called the Screamer. It was a cone shaped device that emitted a direction high frequency alarm. An ordinary person would have lost balance, collapsed and bled from ears, struck down with immediate hearing damage. Beller covered her ears with her hands and winced. She rocked side to side for a moment.

Gina used this chance to leap forward and pull her fist back for a punch that could kill a human with her exo-suit's enhancements. Beller reached out and stopped Gina's fist mid-punch. She caught the girl's fist and held it tightly.

'Her ear drums should nearly be vaporized!' She thought. 'She shouldn't even be able to stand!'

Beller's hand tightened around Gina's right hand, rushing it like glass.

"AAAAAAHHHHHH!"

Gina used her other hand to grab her laser pistol and fire half a dozen bolts at Beller's face, ignoring the pain of her broken fingers pulling the trigger. Beller winced at the plasma bolts hitting her face, but she recovered quickly. She landed another punch that broke Gina's helmet to pieces and kicked the girl's right knee backward, instantly snapping the ligaments, destroying the cartilage and crushing the joint.

Gina's hand and leg were held together now by just the suit. She pointed her pistol at Beller's face and fired it at the highest setting, where flesh should melt from the intense heat output. Even that didn't bring Beller down, but it certainly left a mark on her face. Scarred and battered, Beller snarled through broken teeth and swung a fist directly at Gina's heart.

Gina stumbled back, coughing up blood. Her chest hurt, she couldn't feel her hands or her right leg. A blow to her shoulders sent her crashing to the floor. Gina knew she lost. How could she fight a woman who could take plasma to the face at point blank range?

As she struggled to breathe on the floor, Beller tore a small generator out of its place, sending power cords and oil flying everywhere. She lifted the machine high above her head and approached the dying girl.

'Darren, Annie…Sureshock…Ratchet,' Gina's thought were starting to jumble as her vision went blurry. 'I'm sorry…'

Beller threw the generator on her and everything went dark.

XXXXXX

By the time Centurion moved to save Darren, Colossus was already trying to incinerate him with his energy blasts. Darren kept his TK barrier up, but it was hard with the constant pressure on his defenses.

"Why won't you die!" Colossus growled. He had the kid dead to rights and yet he was still fighting. It was starting to get on his nerves.

An explosion behind him blasted Colossus away from Darren, setting him free. Arcee ran toward them, firing her blasters to drive the man off. Colossus dodged the laser blasts returned fire with energy bolts of his own, which she dodged. Arcee drew her swords and slashed at him, almost bisecting him at the waist. He dodged a downward strike from one of her swords, but was left completely open to the left hook that slammed into his right sight and sent him flying. That punch shattered his right arm and sent him crashing through the ground, digging up a deep trench in his wake.

Colossus stood up, cradling his broken arm with a baleful glare and charged up another energy halo to take her out in one shot. But as he did so, he failed to see Darren telekinetically shoot a pebble into one of his eyes to blind him until the rock pierced his left eye. He stumbled back and clutched his eye, cursing as the halo he was charging up began to crackle and destabilize. To everyone's surprise, Colossus's body began to break apart and he exploded in a gory mess of blood and scraps of clothing like a bomb.

"Holy crap!" Darren gasped. How did that happen?

" _Darren!"_ The Enyo climbed out of the barn, looking like it just walked through a live fire exercise, but still operational. Mjolnir flew back into its holster in Enyo's left arm. " _Are you alright?"_

"We're okay, Annie. Thanks for the save." Darren smiled.

Inside his Skorpios, Scorpio scowled at the death of one of Pisces' beloved Enhanced. That was one powerhouse gone, multiple talos and tanks destroyed and a base that was compromised. At this point, there was nothing left to do but cut their losses and retreat. Pisces wouldn't be happy about it, but he honestly didn't care what that man thought.

"All units, retreat to secondary locations." Scorpio ordered, glaring at the Autobots. "This isn't over, Autobots. We'll finish this another time."

The Skorpios ran away, firing its cannon behind it to keep the Autobots from pursuing, though they didn't want to. Armored transports carrying personnel drove out of another secret entrance on the double, not even giving the Autobots a second glance. Optimus ordered his men to stand down as he saw them running.

"The children have done it." Optimus said, feeling proud of them.

" _Oh yeah! Those fools aren't feelin' so hot without their fancy gadgets helping them! Right bro? Bro?"_ Annie looked down at Darren, who was staring at the barn with a look of concern. _"Darren, what's wrong?"_

"Gina and Sara should've called in by now." He said. "I hope nothing happened."

" _Relax, Darren. Gina's probably with Sara right now getting all the data we need. Soon she'll call us and-_ "

" _DARREN!"_ Sara's voice cried through the comm, making Annie jump.

"See?" Annie said smugly.

"Sara? What's wrong?" Darren asked.

" _It's Ms. Gina!"_ Sara said. She had none of her usual composure, sounding hysterical and on the verge of tears. " _She's gravely injured, Darren. We need help down here. Please!"_

Darren's heart filled with dread as his worst fears were realized.

XXXXXX

Pisces sat in his office with Scorpio lounging on his couch as he gave his report. Pisces sighed and crossed his arms.

"So, Colossus is dead." He said.

"Yeah, one of those brats hit in the eye with something and he just exploded." Scorpio said.

"You don't know what happened?" Pisces asked.

Scorpio frowned. "I was busy fighting that Optimal-whatever the hell his name was to worry about your golden boy."

"His name is Optimus Prime, enemy combatant and the one Ophiuchus wants alive." Pisces scrolled through the notes on his computer. "But that's okay. We have enough data on the Inhumans to continue the project."

"Inhumans?" Scorpio said curiously.

"That's the name I coined for them. Human but not-so human. It has a sense of power, like the Arridan Immortals that the Spartans fought." Pisces smiled.

Scorpio chuckled and took a swig of his wine. "So what's our next move?"

Pisces looked at the bowl of red crystals sitting on his desk, glowing brightly in the dark room. "Now we create our army."


	12. Inhuman part 2

Chapter 12-Inhuman part 2

Theodore Harkins, husband to Julia Harkins and father to Gina Harkins, sat on the queen sized bed in his lavish prison cell reading one of the many books that he was given. The cell he was stuck in was made to look like a five star hotel with a bed, a bathroom with running water, a kitchen with food restocked every week, a flat screen TV and even a large monitor that showed real time images of different places around the world like an actual window.

It was a nice prison, but a prison nonetheless. One that was designed to hold people like him; an inhuman. Theo was the first of many human test subjects for Pisces' Project: Uber. The pain of his transformation was the worst thing he had ever felt in his life. One little crystal was all it took to rewrite his body's genetic code, upgrading him into something stronger and durable. Before his transformation, he was a reasonably toned man from all the exploring he did in his day with a faint beard and short head of gray hair, but as an Inhuman, he didn't feel his age anymore. He felt like an athlete, looked like an Olympic runner, and his powers…Gaia, his powers were unreal.

All this started when he was kidnapped on his expedition to Belka, back to that strange ancient lab with the alien text that could've changed the world forever. He didn't know what happened to Stephanie, his colleague on this expedition who discovered the Arian lab with him, but he was sure she was in the same position as him. Now here he was, a prisoner of OZ, and heaven help the planet if they used what they learned from that lab for their twisted ambitions.

He didn't care about OZ's goals of ushering in some new golden age for humanity. All he wanted to do was get back to his family, to Julia and Gina. Gina would be thirteen going on fourteen this month. Three years of her life he missed. The mere thought of it made his eyes glow with that same power he hated so passionately. He was going to get out of here, even if he had to fight every man and woman in this hellhole.

He heard the door slide open and looked up to see Pisces walk in, a big smile on his face as if greeting an old friend. "Theo! Good morning to you! How are we doing today?"

"Same as always, Pisces," Theo said. "Visualizing your death during my breakout."

"Oh, you joker you!" Pisces chuckled. "You know that escape from here is impossible. Just relax and enjoy your stay."

"Go to hell." Theo said sternly. He knew Pisces was only acting like this to piss him off.

"I'd love to chat, but I have some good news to give you. Your contribution to Project: Uber has reached new heights. Even an average inhuman is capable of fighting a cybertronian with ease. Soon our war with the aliens will be over and our plan can finally commence without interruptions."

Theo heard about the cybertronians, a race of robotic aliens that can disguised themselves as other machines at will. Pisces gave him notes on them, the factions, people of interest, bits and pieces of their biology, weaponry, all compiled from OZ's experiences with them. Theo couldn't deny that they intrigued him, but that was tempered by the fact that OZ was trying to harvest them like black market organ donors.

"Why are you telling me this? It's not like I can do anything about it." Theo huffed. "And none of this has anything to do with me. Not anymore."

Pisces grinned. "Actually, it does have something to do with you. Or more specifically your daughter."

The book snapped shut and Theo glared at Pisces. "What do you mean?"

"It has recently come to my attention that your daughter, Gina, has been in contact with the Autobots for over a year now. And from what previous reports have gathered, they hold her in high regard. Not to mention that she's fighting alongside them." Pisces glanced at the monitor on the wall, which was showing live footage of the shopping district in Zanef, Italia. "Now you must be wondering why I'm telling you this. Well, it's because one of the new Inhumans I created had an… altercation with her a few hours ago. I'm afraid it was little more than a slaughter."

Theo shot up and swung a fist at Pisces fist at speeds that made his arm a blur. Still, Pisces managed to block the punch with his arm, and though he skidded back a few inches, he held his ground. Pisces grabbed his neck and slammed him to the floor, placing his knee on his other arm. Theo struggled but the Zodiac was surprisingly strong, even with his enhancements.

"If you did anything to my daughter, I'll…"

"You'll do what? She should have known better than to get in our way." Pisces said and let go of the man. "Don't worry, Theodore. The Autobots have wondrous technology at their disposal. I'm sure she's still alive…although I don't think she'll be walking any time soon."

Pisces left the cell and the metal door slammed shut behind him, dampening Theo's enraged roar and the explosive burst that made the door shake. The Zodiac weren't human at all, Theo realized, they were demons. Demons in human skin.

XXXXXX

Gina's condition had dampened any sort of victory the Autobots had after returning to the Ark. Ratchet wordlessly took a beaten and bloodied Gina from Sara's shaky hands and disappeared into the medibay, where he and Longarm began operating on her. Everyone, Autobots and Minicons, waited silently for news on their friend's condition, and none were taking it harder than the kids.

Darren sat by Arcee's foot, leaned forward with his hands bridged over his mouth. He hadn't said a word since getting back, not even when Annie sat next to him. He couldn't get the image of Gina's bloody body out of his mind and it was something that would haunt him for a long time. Annie hadn't said anything either, and she was staying close to him for an emotional anchor, though neither twin was emotionally stable at the moment.

Ratchet entered the room, his expression cold as he looked at the assembled team. Optimus stepped forward, giving his friend a sympathetic look. "Ratchet, how is Gina?"

"Gina's wounds are…severe." Ratchet took a moment to compose himself before continuing. "She's suffered a concussion with pieces of her skill embedded in her brain. She has multiple broken bones and her hands are beyond repair. Her spine is shattered in multiple places. She has internal bleeding from punctured organs and her chest cavity has caved in on her lungs and heart. I have her on life support, but…"

Ratchet trailed off, unable to say any more. He didn't need to, as everyone knew that Gina was hanging on death's door.

"We won't be able to do anything more without causing more damage. As it is, we can't move her either." Longarm said.

Silence hung in the room before Bumblebee asked, "Who did this to her?"

Jazz looked at him. "Bee?"

Bumblebee gritted his teeth and glared at his hands. "Who the hell did this to her?"

"It was a woman." Sara appeared in the doorway, her face stone cold but her eyes were sad. "Her name was Josie Beller."

"Circuit Breaker? But I thought she was slagged!" Ironhide growled, clenching his fists.

Sara shook her head. "That was her name and she was alive and well. But she was different. OZ did something to her, made her powerful, just like that man Darren fought against. She overpowered Gina easily and…"

"What the hell were they? Beller and Colossus weren't normal humans." Bulkhead said.

"They weren't espers either, if they have the same powers. Most likely the result of human enhancements." Prowl said.

"So OZ is making some living weapon?" Moonracer scowled.

"Who the hell knows?" Skyfire groaned, feeling very exhausted right now. "Those freaks are always into weird stuff."

"We can't let them get away with this!" Bumblebee yelled.

"Calm down, Bumblebee. Getting angry will not solve anything." Optimus said. "We don't know where they are or if they have more of those superhumans with them."

"Then how about we walk out into the middle of a town. That should draw them out!" Bumblebee growled. "Primus knows that they'll ambush us if we so much as step outside for a smoke!"

"Bumblebee, calm down!" Prowl commanded. "Stop acting like a rabid animal. If you go out there, they'll kill you. Being a lone wolf won't do anyone, much less Gina, any good."

Bumblebee gave an angry shout and kicked the table before sitting down. Sara looked at him before she continued.

"I've managed to download most of the data from the base's servers before they cut the connection. Most of it is encrypted, so I will need time to decode it." She said and started walking away. "Until then, you will have to wait."

With nothing else to discuss, everyone dispersed. Sara led the twins and Minicons to the medibay, while Optimus went to the command center to formulate a plan of attack, something to keep his mind occupied. Along the way, he saw Ratchet leaning against the wall look stricken with grief.

"It's hard, Optimus," He muttered. "It's hard to see that bright, smart young girl look like one of my worst patients after a Decepticon siege. I have all the medical knowledge a medic can have, and I can't do a damn thing about it!"

Ratchet punched a dent in the wall and slammed his head against the tough gold metal. He closed his eyes and fell to his knees. "What good am I as a doctor if I can't save the life of someone close to me!?"

Optimus didn't say anything, choosing to silently comfort his friend in this dire time.

XXXXXX

Darren, Annie, Kevin and Penny stood with their guardians around Gina's bed. Penny was quietly sobbing while Kevin held her close with an arm around her shoulders. Debbie stood by the computer monitoring her vitals while Darren and Sureshock stood together next to the pressurized capsule that contained Gina's bed.

Gina had been placed in a self-contained environment so that she didn't inhale any harmful germs while she was being operated on, hooked up to a respirator to help her damaged lungs to breath. Her body was covered in a cocoon of bandages, hiding her horrid bruises and cuts and scars that marred her once perfect skin. The only part of her body that was uncovered was her face, which had a sickly yellowish purple bruise above her right eyebrow. A breathing mask was over her mouth and nose to help her breath.

"Ratchet and Longarm had to put her under to operate on her." Debbie said softly. She was angry at the Autobots for letting this happen but held back for the children's sake. "But I don't think she'll be able to wake up even if that wasn't the case. She's seriously hurt, and I'm not going to lie…her chances aren't looking very good."

"But Ratchet won't let her die!" Penny sniffled, wiping away her tears. "He can't!"

"Ratchet's the best doctor around her for this job, Penny. He's worked miracles before, and he can fix this too." Kevin said.

'No, he can't.' Darren thought. 'Not this time.'

He wanted to believe that there was a chance to save Gina, but even he knew it was hopeless. Gina was living on borrowed time, right now. She wasn't going to wake up. Things hadn't been this dire even when Annie was possessed and almost killed him. This incident was a grim reminder of how bloody the war they took part in was. This wasn't a game or some spectacular adventure, it was war, and people die in war.

Darren was always afraid of a situation like this. He knew the risks, rushing headlong into a war between giant alien robots who could kill him in a heartbeat. Lord knows they were asking for trouble when they signed up to search for Minicons in a warzone. But what really stung about this was that Gina wasn't hurt by the Decepticons. Humans did this to her.

Darren scowled and clenched his fists, invisible telekinetic energy rippling along his skin. He was going to find Josie Beller and kill her with his own two hands. He couldn't save Gina, but he was damn sure going to get revenge for her!

XXXXXX

"I didn't think your science project would work, but somehow it exceeded expectations." Aquarius grinned. "Those Inhumans of yours may just give us the edge we need."

Behind her, an energon mining operation was going on under her supervision at the foot of a mountain in northwest Osea. Asuka mining talos cut off large pieces of energon to deposit into transport trucks to be carted off to their regional base.

"I never doubted it. Of course, production of the catalyst is time consuming, but we should be able to create enough inhumans to make a small army. And really, that's all that's needed."

"If that's the case, then why are you still mining energon? We have more than enough for the Headmaster project."

"Yes, but unlike you and Aries, I don't have that many Talos equipped with energy weapons. You two keep hogging Thornment for yourselves so I have to improvise when creating new weapons for myself and my company. As it is, our weapons are fine by human standards but are extremely crude compared to cybertronian technology."

Aquarius shrugged. "Aries wants her around for the first few field tests to make sure the operation if going smoothly. And to keep an eye on her. He's been riding my ass on wrapping up my dealings in your part of the country."

Pisces snorted. "Let the brute whine. If we move too fast, we risk making a crucial error that causes everything to go up in flames."

Aquarius pursed her lips and gazed at the blue crystals that had excelled their organization's technology and science by nearly half a decade. They made more progress in the last year and a half than they had in the past century. She smiled at the thought of actually being able to see their hard work amount to something.

"There's nothing wrong with taking your time, Aquarius." Pisces said. "We're making history here, and I want to savor every last minute of it."

XXXXXX

Sara sat in a secluded corner of the Minicon's quarters at the terminal decoding the data she stole from OZ's servers. Teletran did the bulk of the work, with some hands on help from her thanks to her brain being plugged in via cyber jack. She was working her cyber-brain a mile a minute to tear away the data's defenses, and she needed to use 100 percent of her faculties to function, though a tiny 16th of her mind was still thinking of Gina.

Seeing the girl's body crushed and on the verge of death sparked a feeling within her that she never experienced before. That heart wrenching fear that took hold…it was not something she would admit to wanting to feel ever again. And now that all the excitement has died down, all that was left was sadness. That girl was going to die, and she couldn't do anything about it. Her thoughts of Gina made her think back to her creator, her "mother". Thinking of her sent another pang of sadness through Sara's artificial heart and made her eyes sting. She wanted to cry, but had no tears to shed.

Emotions like this were alien to her. Unlike the cybertronians, she was created in a lab and granted life through a powerful object that acted like a heart, lacking the metaphysical properties of the Spark. They were all machines but she alone lacked a true heart, making her little more than a drone in their eyes. She didn't understand it at all when her creator told her about the concept, but now she understood that such emotions were born from what you experienced in life. Now she wished she didn't have these emotions. They hurt too much.

'If this is what it's like to be human, then I would rather not have a soul at all.' Sara thought.

An alert popped up on the screen, getting her attention. Sara checked the highlighted documents that were deemed important.

"Project: Uber." She muttered. She opened the file and scanned through the document as fast as she could. She wasn't even half way done when she realized that she found something very important on her hands.

XXXXXX

When Sara went back to the medibay, she saw the children sleeping next to Gina's bed. The Minicons were probably off recharging in their quarters. She focused on Darren and roughly shook his shoulder.

"Darren."

Darren shot up in his seat, startled from his nap. He rubbed his eyes and looked up at Sara, looking like he hadn't slept in a long time. "S-Sara? What's wrong?"

"I have discovered important information on the two superhumans OZ deployed against us." Sara handed him a paper. "Project: Uber, a genetic research program with the goal of granting normal humans of a specific genotype superhuman abilities. This program has been in development for over three years and has only recently bore fruit"

Darren skimmed through the documents with wide eyes before looking back at her. "They're making artificial espers?"

"No." Sara said. "They're forcing the human body to evolve past its limits. Upgrading it, in a way."

Darren scowled and threw the papers to the floor, taking a deep breath to avoid breaking something with his powers. So OZ is now in the business of doing genetic experiments. What else were they going to do? Build a base on the moon? "What else were you able to find?"

"One of the leading minds behind the project. A woman with ties to Pisces himself, Dr. Stephanie Bergen."

XXXXXX

When she wasn't stuck catering to Pisces' bullcrap, Stephanie worked as a college professor teaching archaeology. Her students and coworkers loved her work ethic, but were put off by her icy demeanor and jaded personality that she didn't even try to hide. This job, her friends, her students, it was all an escape from the hell she was about to put the world through, and to stave off the loneliness that led her to drinking her ass off in her home.

It was dark out when she left the school after finishing up some last minute grading. She didn't like staying in the college until dark, but it was better than smoking alone in her apartment like the lonely schmuck she was. She acknowledged that she had no one to care for her, but that didn't mean she had to be reminded of that fact.

With it being so late at night, only two vehicles were sitting in the parking lot, her car and, for some reason, an ambulance. She walked over to her car and unlocked it, but when she tried to open the door, it wouldn't budge. Frowning, she tried to wrench it open but it still didn't move.

"Come on," She grumbled. "Not now."

"Car troubles?"

Stephanie spun around and saw a boy walking towards her. He wore an entirely black outfit, black hoodie, black jeans, everything. She went on her guard as he stopped a foot away from her.

'Great, a mugger.' She thought with a sigh. "What do you want kid? If you're here to mug me, then make it quick. I have a seminar to prepare for tomorrow morning."

"I'm not here for your money."

"So you're here to rape me then. No offense kid, but you're a little too young to be into that." She took out a cigarette and a lighter, but jumped back when both exploded. Looking back at him, she saw his fists glowing with silver energy. "You're an esper."

"Yes, I am. And you're working with the Organization of the Zodiac," Darren glared up at her from beneath his hood, his green eyes flashing. "But you better know it as OZ."

Stephanie narrowed her eyes, now more cautious. "How do you know that? Who are you, some Karaba lackey?"

"You're coming with me. We can talk in private." Darren stepped forward, but paused when Stephanie pulled a gun on him. "Dr. Bergen, you can either come willingly or I'll take you by force."

"That's cute kid." She sneered. "But you and what army?"

The ambulance next to her car split apart and reconfigure into a tall white and red robot, who slammed his fist on top of her car, completely crushing it. Stephanie cursed and her gun was ripped from her hand by an invisible force.

"Me." Ratchet growled.

XXXXXX

Optimus wasn't pleased when he learned that Darren and Ratchet had essentially kidnapped someone in public, midnight or not. Prowl wasn't very pleased about Ratchet blowing his cover, but knowing that any further needling would have ended with the medic shoving his scalpel into his eye, he held back on the lectures…for now.

At the moment, Optimus, Prowl and Jazz stood in the Ark's brig with their new prisoner, the surprisingly nonchalant Stephanie Bergen. Unknown to her, the interrogation was being broadcasted across the ship for everyone to hear.

"Assault, kidnapping, destruction of private property and imprisonment," Stephanie mused. "I must say, you're all very different from what Pisces told me about you. I thought you'd all be a bunch of softies who thought themselves above such dirty tactics."

Optimus crossed his arms. "Considering the people you work for, you shouldn't be talking about illegal activities."

"Let's get straight to the point, Dr. Bergen." Prowl said. "What is Project: Uber?"

"What do you know?" Stephanie asked.

"It's a genetic research program that's supposed to grant normal humans superhuman abilities." Jazz said. "We're only able to glean surface information from the files we acquired and your name is basically on the front cover. Care to elaborate?"

"Well at least you're well informed." She said, leaning back in her chair. The only other thing in the room aside from her was a metal table and her briefcase. She took off her glasses and rubbed the bridge of her nose as she began her story. "I was a student working under Professor Theodore Harkins in the archaeology field. We'd travel the world uncovering ancient ruins and artifacts in places often overlooked by the rest of humanity. Many of them were Arian in nature. Things were great until we discovered an ancient Arian lab of some kind in Belka. There was this room with highly detailed notes written in what could only be described as alien."

Prowl raised an optic ridge. "Alien?"

"Yes. The writing was definitely not human, and not cybertronian either. The first chapter provided the instructions to decoding the rest, based on universal mathematical principles. It was only that the first step was taken did we realize what we found." She looked at the briefcase in front of her with disgust. "It's a paradigm for making new humans. For upgrading them."

Optimus narrowed his eyes in a stern glare that actually made Stephanie pause. "And this was when OZ contacted you two?"

"Yeah, about year and a half later after we made that discovery. They said that they would fund our research and give us the resources to decode the text, believing that it could do the world at large some good if they learned what it was. I was considering the idea, but Theo-Professor Harkins was adamant about letting them learn about it. He didn't trust them, and for good reason, I would later realize. Actually…that was the last I saw of him after that meeting. That was three years ago, and I figured that it would be in my best interests to accept their offer." She continued.

"With their help, we learned that the text was divided into three sections: the first is nearly understood-the process for making a material called the catalyst. More on that later. The second was for locating the susceptible, er, people with the genetic disposition for the transformation. The third is by far the largest, specific instructions for improving humans." A dark look crossed over her face. "OZ abandoned the instructions half way through to make their own tests after seeing how long it took to completely decode the first part. They applied the catalyst to thousands of prisoners, namely traitors, spies, or people who pissed them off on a bad day. From those survivors, they derived blood tests that could identify the gene and then used that on their personnel to locate potential enhanced recruits. Their final test looks for all the markers they've found. If there's a single positive match, they return to the original paradigm and activate them. Pisces has taken to calling them Inhumans."

The Autobots couldn't believe what she was saying. OZ had been in this for a long time, they've killed thousands of people to achieve their barely discernable "goal". The lengths they were willing to go to just to get ahead was absolutely abysmal.

"This catalyst," Optimus said after a long, uncomfortable silence. "What is it?"

Stephanie took out a key from her pocket and unlocked her briefcase, which was pressurized, to reveal a container full of bright red crystals, each one no bigger than a diamond ring. Prowl ran a quick scan over them and saw that they radiated high temperatures capable of melting through flesh and bone.

"This is the catalyst. It's a crystalline compound generated in a process somewhat analogous to fermentation. In other words, it matures over time. It can't just be magicked out of thin air."

"And all you have to do is touch them with that and it'll give them fancy powers?" Jazz questioned.

"In a way; for most people, it only takes one catalyst to transform them, with some above average individuals requiring three at maximum to completely transform. There are some people, people like Colossus, the man who attacked your friend, who need fifteen of these things to change into a more powerful enhanced human. Those powerhouses are called Ubers," Stephanie explained. "And they're OZ's trump card against your kind."

Inhumans-living weapons to be used against the cybertronians and later the world. With this power, OZ had the capability to create an army of powerful superhumans that can decimate everything within their line of sight. Just one Uber was enough to bring an Autobot to his knees, and a regular inhuman was a walking tank.

"How many people have they transformed?" Optimus asked.

Stephanie shrugged. "By the time you guys stormed their base, they've already managed to create two dozen inhumans, and more are being made as we speak."

"Great, now we've got an army of mass destruction on our hands." Jazz said.

For some reason she still has yet to fathom to this day, she threw the Autobots a bone. "If it's any consolation, I've done some snooping and learned that they're shipping a lot of their supply of the catalyst was being shipped from a town named Springfield. Chances are that's where their production plant is, fermenting new crystals every day. Destroy that, and you take out what took them almost two years to properly create."

"Why are you bothering to tell us this?" Prowl asked.

Stephanie was silent for a moment. "Despite my attitude, I regret what I've done. I just invented a new breed of superhuman weapons and in process killed more people than most Army grunts today. Something like this can never be completely destroyed, but at the very least I can help you get back at them. OZ abused my research, turned me into a killer and took away the only man I gave two shits about. This is my way of sticking it to them."

Optimus nodded. "Thank you for your cooperation, Dr. Bergen. Prowl, Jazz, we're leaving."

As the Prime's lieutenants shuffled out of the room, Stephanie chose to leave some parting words for Optimus. "Prime?"

"Yes?"

"I know you're one of those bleeding hearts who think that there's room for pacifism in war, so let me tell you this: when you see those inhumans, don't hold back. Kill them before they kill you."

XXXXXX

Once he was given the location, Wheeljack went to the computer and quickly used their satellite in orbit to locate Springfield. It took a bit of effort, but eventually Wheeljack located what could be their target.

"It checks out." Wheeljack confirmed. "I've cross-referenced Sara's data with Bergen's info. There's definitely an OZ base in Springfield, the largest we've discovered. They built it under a town about a month after the community's economy crashed and everyone moved away. It's the perfect cover to hide where no one would think to look save for a few unwary stragglers and passing tourists."

"I don't want to know what happens to the pour bastards who stumble on their turf." Skyfire muttered.

Optimus and Prowl shared a look before they addressed the team. "Autobots, I don't think I need to say how much more dangerous OZ has become with this new development. The introduction of the inhumans could change the face of human warfare and upset the status quo. If they set such an army on the people of Terra, they'll burn this world ten times over. That's not to mention the danger they pose to us as well. I propose we attack their installation and destroy the factory where they're producing the catalyst. We need to nip this threat in the bug before it can grow into a problem too big to control."

"So we're finally taking the fight to them?" Ironhide grinned and slammed his fists together. "Great! Time for some payback!"

"Those bastards will pay for what they did to Gina!" Bumblebee growled.

"We're all with ya, Prime!" Skyfire said and sighed. "Primus, we're gonna die."

"Here's to that!" Moonracer chirped. Skyfire glared at her.

Optimus turned to Sparkplug and knelt over him. "Sparkplug, I hesitate to ask, but can we count on the Minicons aiding us in this operation?"

"It's us or them, Prime." Sparkplug said. "You don't need to ask."

Optimus nodded and stood up to face his team. "Everyone, rest up and prepare. The operation begins in two days."

XXXXXX

'I wonder if they're going to kill me to make sure I stay quiet.' Stephanie thought as she sat in her cell smoking her cigarette. She hoped they would; she basically gave a terrorist organization a weapon that could destabilize human society as they knew it, though deep down she knew they wouldn't. Nothing ever went her way, not now and not back then.

The door slid open and the medic that snatched her up earlier walked in. Blowing a cloud of smoke at him, she asked, "Have you finally come to execute me?"

"You don't deserve the mercy." Ratchet sneered. "Earlier you said that OZ approached you and Professor Harkins about the formula. Where is he?"

Stephanie shrugged, her eyes looking sad. "I don't know. The guys who spoke to us were very good at hiding their emotions. I didn't even know he disappeared until a few months later. Knowing these assholes, they probably had him killed before coming back to me."

"I shouldn't be telling you this, but your little science project fatally wounded his daughter, Gina Harkins." Ratchet spat. "She's dying because of those monsters you made."

The doctor's face went cold and drained of color, but Ratchet missed it as he turned his back on her. "I hope you take that thought to the grave with you. Good riddance."

Struggling with her words, Stephanie quickly stopped Ratchet from leaving. "W-wait, I can help her!"

Ratchet paused and glared at her. "Don't play games with me!"

"I'm not lying. Josie Beller was a cripple with second degree burns before she was transformed. If the catalyst could heal her to full health, then it could heal Gina as well."

But…Gina's dying! She's suffering from a concussion and internal bleeding, and possibly has brain damage. And you're saying that your magical solution can help her?" Ratchet gritted his teeth. "What if it doesn't work? We don't have time to test her!"

"It's a chance you'll have to take. If she dies…" Stephanie sighed. "If she dies, you're free to kill me too. A life for a life. It's the least I deserve for unleashing such a terrible monstrosity on the world."

Ratchet said nothing, glancing at the bowl of glowing red crystals sparkling in the dim light of the cell.

XXXXXX

Later on, away from the other Autobots and Minicons, Ratchet informed the kids of his plan to use the catalyst on Gina to possibly save her life. Ratchet wanted to do it immediately, but he knew that it was only right to inform Gina's friends. Their reactions were varied, as he expected.

"You can't be serious!" Penny yelled. "You seriously want to turn Gina into one of those monsters?!"

"It's either that or let her die a slow death, and I'm not passing this chance up." Ratchet said.

"This is nuts. We don't even know what happens to her if she doesn't accept that crystal thingy!" Penny countered.

"She'll die if we don't do anything." Annie said.

"Arguing is only wasting time. Let's put this to a vote among us as Gina's closest friends." High Wire said and turned to the children. "It's your decision, as humans and as her friends."

"So," Grindor breathed. "All in favor?"

Annie raised her hand. "I'm not losing my friend like this after everything we've been through."

"I can't." Penny shook her head, wiping away her tears. "I'm sorry, but I can't take that chance with her life."

"Go for it." Kevin said, much to Penny's surprise.

"W-What?" She stammered. "Kevin!"

"Sorry, Penny, but it's a 50/50 chance." He said. "If we hesitate, she dies. If we're wrong and her body rejects the catalyst, she dies. Best case scenario, she's completely healed and we have our friend back, superhuman or not."

That left only one person. Everyone turned to Darren, who hasn't said a word for past few hours since returning to the Ark. Annie sat next to her brother and shook his shoulder.

"Darren?" She said softly.

Darren closed his eyes and took a deep breath before opening them and looking straight at Ratchet. "Do it."

The moments after the vote were agonizingly slow. Penny dragged Kevin home, unable to stand to be in the same room as the people who were going to possibly kill her rival and friend. Sureshock went back to Gina's house, using a holomatter to fill in for the girl so that her mother didn't get suspicious. Grindor and High Wire remained with the twins for moral support.

Ratchet, Darren and Annie stood by Gina's bed. The twins held tightly held each other's hands as the medic took out one of the red crystals and slowly held it toward Gina's uncovered forehead. Darren held a hand up to make Ratchet wait before kneeling next to Gina's bed and grabbed her cast covered hand gently.

"Gina? I don't know if you can hear me, but I just want to say we're going to make you better again." Darren whispered to her. "It's unconventional, and it will hurt a lot, but I need you to stay strong one last time for me and everyone else. Please, hang in there. We all love you and hope this will fix everything."

He backed away and nodded to Ratchet, who leaned down and pressed the crystal to Gina' forehead. "Administering the Catalyst."

The crystal sat on Gina's forehead, still radiating a faint heat wave. It only took seconds for it to take effect. Gina's eyes snapped open and she started convulsing and thrashing around in her bed like she was having a seizure. The catalyst slowly burned itself into her skull, sinking into her skin and making the veins in her forehead burn bright red like they had molten slag coursing through them. Gina pulled against her restraints, further damaging her hands as she began groaning and wheezing, unable to scream.

"What's happening?!" Annie screamed.

"I don't know!" Ratchet said, looking just as confused and terrified. "But her heart rate is increasing rapidly!

Darren said nothing, watching unblinkingly as sickly crimson, almost black liquid was coughed, almost vomited from her mouth. More dark fluids began leaking from her noise and even her eyes. The last few seconds of her seizure had Gina's deteriorating body turn towards Darren, as if wanting to see him one last time before she finally went still, and her body fell still on the bed. Her head went limp and fell to the side, eyes wide and crying thin, bloody tears that stared blankly up at Darren. Her forehead was red and irritated, veins glowing underneath her skin as the catalyst was branded into her skull.

The tell-tale beep was enough to make the room go silent as it drone endlessly on. Ratchet attempted to resuscitate her, but it was in vain. Their gamble had failed immensely and Gina paid the largest price for it. Gina was dead…and they killed her.

XXXXXX

The town of Springfield, Montana was a little settlement near a coal mine that was the town's main source of income. Thousands of pounds of coal and ore was mined from the quarry and it kept the town above water economically. But when the coal mine slowly started to dry up, and the mines beginning to destabilize from constant mining, the place was shut down and the town started to drop into hard times. Eventually, one by one, people began moving away from the declining town and within two years Springfield became a ghost town.

Which made it the best place for OZ to set up shop. They essentially turned the entire town into one massive regional base and used the surrounding area for weapons testing and used the mine to dig up new ore that's been sitting deeper in the mine for decades. It was here that the Project: Uber reached completion, and soon Springfield became a training area for new inhumans.

Pisces and Scorpio stood outside the adamantium laced armor plating watching Josie Beller train with two other inhumans with their powers. The near indestructible walls were scorched and burnt from the energy discharges that Pisces called the "Distortion Halo Effect". Inhumans created this energy from their bodies and used it to incinerate anything within their line of sight.

"You're making a lot of progress with this superhuman army of yours." Scorpio said. "With them, OZ now has the power to wage war in our favor."

"Indeed, though the production of the catalyst is taking much longer than I anticipated. The fermentation process is delicate, too much or too little will cause the crystal to spoil and become more unstable than coal." Pisces said.

"How many inhumans have we made so far?"

"Two infantry battalions of 24 inhumans."

Scorpio frowned. "Only 42?"

"It's hard finding people who are eligible for the transformation. It takes time for their blood to react to the catalyst, and that's only for regular inhumans. Training them is another matter entirely. We're writing the book on inhuman physiology and battle tactics." Pisces explained. "Beller's doing her best to break in the new recruits, but their bodies need time to mature before they're combat ready."

"Really? Beller seemed fine after thrashing that girl." Scorpio said.

"Beller's a different case. She has yet to fully mature and yet she's fighting as if she's at full strength."

Scorpio realized what Pisces really meant. "You mean she has the potential to get stronger?"

"Yes, in fact, she may grow to be as strong as Colossus if given enough time." Pisces grinned.

The lull of the training simulation was cut short when the base's alarms suddenly activated and they heard faint rumbles coming from aboveground. A soldier ran up to them and saluted.

"Sir, we're under attack!"

"Attack? By who?" Pisces demanded. "No one knows we're even here!"

"It's the Autobots, sir. They just appeared and started attacking the town."

They made their way to the security room, where the camera feeds showed a green and red jet shooting particle beams at the houses and streets topside.

"It's just one Autobot." Scorpio snorted.

"If there's one, then the others are right behind it. Especially when they're attacking one of our largest bases in the country!" Pisces shouted in Scorpio's face and gave the order. "Scramble all our mechanized forces! Drones, talos, I don't care! Shoot that Autobot down and drive them out of our base!"

Scorpio was already heading outside to reach his talos. Pisces stood back and watched the defense forces mobilize to the surface to defend their base.

'So this is their declaration of war.' Pisces thought. 'Fine then. Let the battle be fought!'

XXXXXX

On the surface, seemingly normal looking houses split apart to allow a dozen blimp-like drones called HAVCs to float into the air. From the megamart in the heart of the town, the front part of the building opened up to allow a long line of HS tanks to roll out into the parking lot. Codarl and Orion talos marched down the streets from underground hangers built underneath the two schools the town had.

The Autobots stood on the highway leading to Springfield, watching as the town went from ghost town to militarized settlement armed to the teeth. Seeing the large amount of vehicles and talos moving out, Jazz gave a whistle.

"That's a lot of big guns." Jazz said.

"Ours are bigger." Optimus said and took out his ion rifle. The Autobots also took out their weapons, and powerlinked with their chosen Minicon partner. They couldn't afford to hold anything back in this battle. "Autobots, attack!"

The Autobots opened fire on the OZ mechanized forces, and landed a few hits on the talos that were still getting into position. Though initially surprised, the human forces quickly regrouped and fought back with a storm of missiles, bullets and lasers. The entire town erupted into a firestorm as the battle began and quickly grew in intensity.

The HAVOC drones locked onto Skyfire and chased after him, moving surprisingly fast in the air despite their blimp-like construction as they shot rockets at the Autobot. She evaded the rockets, but was almost blown out of the sky when missile launchers from the ground began firing laser-guided missiles at her. She transformed and began shooting them out of the sky with her particle cannon before switching back to jet mode and flying off when she spotted five Raven fighter jets coming at her.

Optimus led the ground team toward where they believed the center of the installation was-the supermarket. Optimus, Ironhide and Bulkhead took point, their more durable armor taking the brunt of the frontal assault while they pushed into enemy forces. The HS tanks and Codarl talos were slowly pushed back by the relentless charge of the Autobots, still shooting laser bolts and plasma bursts at them. Jazz led Arcee and Bumblebee against a group of Orion talos coming at them from the side streets, which were shooting missiles at them from shoulder-cannons.

Bumblebee took a missile to the shoulder as he blew the head off an Orion with his solar accelerator. A Codarl jumped on him from behind, but Arcee slashed its arms off before kicking it aside. An Orion rolled out behind them to shoot, but the talos was destroyed by a neutron blast fired from afar.

"Watch your back!" Moonracer said from her vantage point atop a small house.

"Thanks!" Bumblebee said and charged at an oncoming Codarl, stabbing it right above the cockpit with his left arm blade before throwing it to the ground. "That was for Gina!"

"Focus on taking out the baddies behind us before they can close in on us." Jazz told Moonracer. "Don't let them regroup!"

"Got it." Moonracer took aim and began shooting out the legs of the other Codarls chasing after her friends.

Meanwhile, Bulkhead and Wheeljack were also carving a path of destruction in a much more haphazard way. "Jackie, torch 'em!" Bulkhead yelled.

Wheeljack took out two grenades and threw them at a group of tanks. The grenades exploded, releasing a powerful EMP wave that completely shut down the vehicles. The pilots quickly exited the tanks when Bulkhead stomped up to them and lifted one above his head before clubbing a charging Codarl in the chest with the heavy vehicle.

"Those grenades are awesome, Jackie!" Bulkhead said. "What do they do?"

"They're variable grenades, sort of like a four-in-one package." Wheeljack said. "I just flip a switch and toss 'em. They're convenient, though I have no idea what each one does before I throw them."

"Wait…so you don't know what each one does?"

"Nope." He said, tossing another grenade. "I'm still figuring out how to see the settings on these things before I throw them."

Bulkhead shook his head. "I swear, Jackie…"

XXXXXX

Inside the command center, Josie Beller watched the battle with a scowl. "Finally, time for some payback."

She went for the door, but Pisces stopped her. "No, you're staying here."

"What? But I can help!" She yelled. "I can fight those damn robots!"

"Captain Sankt will lead the charge against them with his unit. I need you to lead the protection detail down in the production plant." Pisces told her. "If the plant is destroyed, so is our ability to produce more catalyst, and thus more inhumans. It'll take too long to make another plant, so do not let anyone or anything get near them. Do you understand?"

Beller growled but she nodded. "Yes, sir."

She left the room and Pisces switched his radio on. "Scorpio, roll out the welcome mat."

XXXXXX

"With pleasure."

Scorpio activated his talos and sat back in the large cockpit of his unit, Skorpios. Once he was all clear, he moved out through the supermarket's front entrance, forcing the other talos to get out of the way as he quickly located the Autobots. He aimed his laser-guided missiles at the closest Autobots and fired his first volley.

"Incoming!"

Prowl took a missile to the shoulder that blasted off a few pieces of armor and knocked him over. Optimus and Ironhide were also peppered with missiles, but they weathered through the barrage easier and returned fire. Scorpio quickly moved back behind a house and took aim at Bulkhead and Wheeljack with his stinger cannon.

"Look out!" Bulkhead jumped in front of Wheeljack as the laser beam hit his shoulder with enough force to spin him around and topple over. He hissed at the burning pain in his shoulder joint where he was hit and cursed. "That bastard's picking us off!"

"Skyfire, we need support on our end!" Optimus said.

After destroying the last HAVOC drone, Skyfire flew toward Prime's position and shot two missiles at Scorpio. The Zodiac moved his talos in reverse and fired his tail cannon, destroying the missiles and tried to shoot down Skyfire. The Autobot dodged the beam and transformed, landing in front of Scorpio and pointing her cannon at the insectoid talos.

Scorpio growled and spun is machine around, using the tail to smack Skyfire's weapon aside before shooting three missiles into her chest. Skyfire stumbled back and Scorpio shot forward to ram into her, further knocking her off balance.

"Sankt, send in your forces!" Scorpio ordered.

From their hiding spots, men in black armor ran out into the open and headed straight for the fighting Autobots. Wearing heavy black helmets, all that was visible were their eyes, which suddenly glowed blue and generated powerful energy bolts-distortion halos. Arcee saw the bright energy rings and pushed her sister away from the line of fire.

"Moonracer, move!"

A chain of energy balls tore up the street, destroying concrete and nearby houses like bombs that blew Arcee and Moonracer apart from each other. Arcee crashed into a tree and a halo tore into her left leg, staggering her. She jumped aside and raised her blaster, only to have it explode in her hand as she collapsed to the ground.

"Sis!" Moonracer pointed her rifle at an inhuman but was forced to dodge as another halo exploded near her head. As she dived to the side, she fired a shot into the chest of one of the inhumans just a he was about to let loose another halo, causing his body to explode like a bomb.

The other two inhumans prepared to attack her, but two well placed shots of liquid nitrogen froze one of them on the spot. Jazz leapt over a house and stomped on the frozen inhuman, shattering him like glass. The last inhuman cursed the Autobot and charged forward, throwing a punch into Jazz's knee that almost broke the joint before he lost the left half of his body to an explosive round from Moonracer.

"Cee!" Moonracer ran over to her sister, who dragged herself over to a tree.

Jazz looked around and saw that there were more inhumans appearing all over the place. "This isn't good."

Optimus and Ironhide saw distortion halos blossoming all over town-inhumans were being deployed all over the battlefield and were attacking them in teams of three. Bulkhead and Wheeljack were also set upon by inhumans that tried to surround them in a death circle, and Bumblebee just escaped having his legs blown off by a surprise attack from a pair of female inhuman soldiers.

"They're deploying their secret weapons." Prowl said. He hissed as Optimus welded a patch of torn armor on his chest plate. "At this rate, they'll turn the battle against us."

"We have to push forward. We're getting close to their command center." Optimus said and looked around. He quickly deduced that, though powerful, the inhumans seemed to be more inclined to dishing out quick instant strikes instead of prolonging their engagements. They were trying to finish the fight as fast as possible. "If they're sending them out this early, then that means they're desperate. And we know they can't use their powers for long periods of time."

Prowl noticed this as well. "I see."

"Autobots, storm the supermarket! Don't let them overwhelm you!" Optimus bellowed.

At their leader's command, the Autobots mustered up their strength and pushed their advance. Talos, tanks and inhumans came at them from all sides, but they watched each other's backs. Skyfire rained down hell from above while avoiding anti-aircraft fire and the two Ravens chasing him down. She transformed and flipped over the two jets, shooting them down from above as they passed under her. She started to change back into jet mode when energy balls started exploding around her.

"What the hell?!" Skyfire just barely avoided the explosions and boosted higher into the air. The inhumans tried to bring her down, but she was soon out of their range…for the moment.

Inside a gunship, Captain Sankt of the anti-cybertronian inhuman division watched the green and red femme fly around, making sure to keep her in his sights. Distortion halos were limited to line of sight, and were tricky to use against fast opponents. But Sankt had just about as much training in his powers as Beller and Colossus, and his eye seen twice as keen as a normal human's. All he needed to do was predicted where the Autobot was going to be and attack.

Seeing that Skyfire was heading straight for a plasma cannon, Sankt waited for her to near it before unleashing his halo blast. A ring of spheres discharged right above the house and caught Skyfire in its web. The Autobot flyer was engulfed in a surge of blindingly white energy that warped her armor and almost tore off her wings. The blasts knocked Skyfire senseless and she spiraled out of control, crashing into a few houses before she hit the street nose first and rolled across the ground.

XXXXXX

"Are you sure you're ready to do this?" Ratchet asked sadly. "If you fail…it won't just be Gina we've lost today."

Annie's Enyo stood in front of the ground bridge with Darren, Sara and Centurion standing at her feet.

"I know, but we have to do this. Things are going to be chaotic over there, and we can use that to get inside and rattle the Zodiac's cages." Darren said coldly.

" _Those freaks hurt Gina, so we're going to hurt them back."_ Annie said. _"Those fuckers are dead!"_

Ratchet looked down at his hands. They were old and worn from years of operations and transfusions and patch-ups both on and off the field. He fingered the little burn left behind by the Catalyst after he touched it. It served as a reminder of the one life he regretted most to failing. "Children, I'm so sorry for earlier. I shouldn't have talked you into doing that to Gina."

"We knew the risks, and took them willingly." Darren smiled sadly at Ratchet. "I guess we'll have to live with our mistakes now."

They had left Gina's body within the pod they had her in. No one knew of her passing yet, not even Kevin and Penny. It was a bridge they'll cross once they ended this nightmare.

Sara tapped Darren's shoulder. "We must go."

Darren nodded. "Right."

Ratchet opened the ground bridge and Enyo, carrying Darren, Centurion and Sara in its arms, flew into the portal.

" _Darren, once you're inside, what's next?"_ Annie asked.

"Sara has her own mission, but Centurion and I will go destroy the plant." A dark look fell over Darren's face. "Then I find Beller and kill her myself!"

XXXXXX

Inside the command center, one of the female officers blinked at her screen. "Uh, sir? We have a problem."

"Yes, I know. The Autobots are getting closer to our position." Pisces said with an annoyed grunt.

"No, sir. We're being assaulted by abnormal weather patterns." She said.

"Excuse me?"

"The facility is being struck by stray lightning bolts."

Just as she said, the cameras were showing bolts of lightning coming down from the sky and striking everything within the town, but most of it was centered on their position. Even the talos were being disabled by direct hits from the lightning. Pisces instantly knew this was no freak act of nature, nor was it some kind of divine interference. Did the Autobots have some weather machine deployed nearby?

"Sir, I think I've found the source of the disturbance."

"Put it up."

The image of a stocky black and white talos appeared on the monitor, and it was shooting lightning bolts from its wrist as it hovered over the parking lot routing the security forces. Pisces recognized it as one of the new talos belonging to the Autobots' human allies.

'More players. This game is getting too hard to handle.' Pisces thought distastefully.

As if the universe thought that wasn't enough, more bad news came in. "Sir, we've got intruders in the main entrance hall!"

"What?!" Pisces growled.

"Three intruders managed to get in through the entrance during the initial thunderstorm. One human and two mechanoids, possibly aliens."

Pisces gnashed his teeth so hard they almost broke. To think the Autobots would use their young allies as secret weapons after Beller tore that girl apart. He was getting sick of these aliens constantly underestimating him. Reigning in his anger, he gave his orders.

"Send all security units to intercept the intruders and warn Beller's team to be alert. I'm heading out."

The support staff looked at him in surprise. They never knew Pisces to actually go out and fight by himself.

"Going out?" The woman asked. "What for, sir?"

"To take care of that brat outside." He said coldly.

On the other side of the base, Darren led Sara and Centurion through the halls tearing apart any opposition in their way. Darren didn't hold back as he used his telekinetic powers to turn his environment into his weapon-tearing apart the walls to use as saws or spears to cut into the poor soldiers trying to stop them. Bullets bounced off his TK barrier, which he used to smack men and women out of his way without a care for any injuries or deaths he caused. He didn't care how violent he was. His heart was carved from stone at this point.

"Okay, we can head down here." Darren said, pointing down another hall labeled as a restricted area. "I think that's where the plant is located."

Sara nodded and took a step forward, but she stopped. Darren and Centurion paused when they saw her hesitate.

"Sara, what's wrong?" centurion asked.

In a rare show of unease, Sara bit her lip and gave the two an apologetic look. "I'm sorry, but I must attend to something else."

"What?!" Darren stammered as Sara ran down the hall. "What are you doing?"

"I cannot explain, but it is something I must do alone!" Sara said. She knocked out a soldier and took his rifle. "Go on without me."

"Fuck." Darren growled and ran down the hall with Centurion, not wanting to waste any more time. "Human or robot, I'll never understand girls."

XXXXXX

"What in Gaia's name is going on out there?"

Theo asked himself this as he heard another rumble outside his cell, which shouldn't be possible unless it was very close. Everything was quiet and peaceful until he heard alarms blaring in his ears and heavy footsteps running around. After that, the rumbles began and he could only assume that they were explosions.

"Hey, stop right there!" Theo heard shouting outside his cell, presumably his guards. He froze when he heard gunfire soon after. "I said sto-ugh!"

He winced when he heard the sound of something slicing through flesh and the panicked callouts of the soldiers as something completely decimate their ranks. After a few minutes of pained screams, gunfire and sickening crunches, everything went silent. Then the bolts of his adamantium cell began to unlock. He faced the door, ready to confront the terrible person who managed to kill an entire platoon of soldiers in no time.

Theo was prepared to fight-but he wasn't prepared to see a little girl walk through the door. She looked human, clad in a white and green bodysuit that seemed to offer very little protection, but looking at her hands, he saw a blue energy blade extending from her right arm and her left hand split apart to reveal a glowing blue circle that looked like a weapon. Her long green hair flared behind her as she looked him over with her dull yet expressive gaze.

After a short moment of assessing him, the girl asked, "Are you Theodore Harkins?"

"…Y-Yes." Theo answered cautiously, ready to fight if she decided to be hostile.

The girl nodded and grabbed his hand, pulling him along. "Come with me. It's dangerous here and I must take you to safety."

"Safety? Wait," Theo pulled his wrist out of her rather strong grip. "I'm not going anywhere until you tell me who you are and what's going on!"

"My name is Sara." She answered with a small smile. "I am a friend of your daughter's."

XXXXXX

The production plant where the catalyst was being produced looked like an amalgamation of an ore purification facility and a smelting factory. There was a giant vat of molten liquid in the middle of the large chamber with catwalks crisscrossing the upper level. A conveyor belt that brought the completed product to storage containers that were transported to another room. This was the Forge.

Darren and Centurion entered the chamber through a catwalk connected to the upper level and tried to stealthily make their way toward the vat where the catalyst was being made. Darren took a step onto the bridge, but quickly brought up a force barrier to block the energy wave that exploded next to them. Two inhumans leapt onto the bridge and charged at them. Another distortion halo destroyed the catwalk, but Centurion grabbed Darren and landed on the floor safely. The two inhumans jumped down after them, but the gestalt leapt up and grabbed the two men by their necks to throw them into the wall. Pulling out two plasma blasters, Centurion charged at them shooting wildly.

"Go, Darren, destroy the plant!" Centurion yelled at Darren.

Darren looked up at the boiling vat above him and stepped back to shoot it down when he saw someone running at him from his right. He summoned a force barrier that blocked a powerful shoulder tackle that knocked him a good two feet across the floor. Darren jumped to his feet and faced his attacker.

"Hello, boy."

It was Josie Beller, healthy as the day they first met with a sick smile on her face. Taller, stronger, and powerful, her eyes glowed with a distortion halo already charged up and ready to fight. The way she looked him over was akin to a lion studying its prey.

"You have no idea how long I've waited to get back at you brats and your filthy tin-can friends for what you did to me!" Beller growled. "After I'm done with you, I'm coming after that other bitch before ripping those machines apart!"

Darren said nothing, he only brought up his TK shield and charged at her. Beller also ran at him and they met in the middle of the room, throwing a punch at each other. Encasing his body in his telekinetic armor, Darren punched Beller in the jaw with enough force to dent a car door, but she merely stepped back a bit. He started pummeling her face and chest with powerful strength enhanced blows, but she was like a sandbag, absorbing his blows like they were nothing. Meanwhile, she threw only three punches that almost shattered his armor and knocked him off his feet.

Beller took a backhand to her face that nearly cracked her nose and threw a first at his face, which he met with one of his own. Darren's psionic punch broke her knuckles, but she ignored the pain to kick him in the chest. He flew back and landed on his spine, knocking the breath from his lungs. She leapt at him and he rolled aside to avoid the punch that would've punched right through his torso. Rolling to his feet, he used a TK pulsewave to push himself off the floor and into Beller, sending them both flying into the air and onto the catwalk above them.

Beller threw him off and Darren fired his plasma blaster into her face, but she quickly dodged the beams and smacked the gun from his hand. She wailed on him with punches that slowly wore away his armor, pushing him back. Darren kicked her in the chest, but she retaliated with a solid punch to the face that shattered his psionic helmet and revealed his face. He backhanded her in the jaw, but she flipped over him and lifted him over her shoulder to throw into the floor on his back. He coughed up spit and oxygen from his battered lungs, trying to punch her, but she caught his arm and started squeezing his armor.

"Pathetic." Beller spat. "Fighting me is suicide, kid. You should know that by now!"

Seeing a halo form, Darren ditched his armor and leapt back just as the halo exploded and blew him into a support beam. He tore off a piece of metal and fashioned it into a spear, throwing it at Beller at the speed of a bullet. His shot rang true, and Beller was impaled through the shoulder by a large piece of metal that would've tore right through her shoulder.

"You're right, fighting you alone is suicide," He panted, trying to clear his head from that punch she gave him. "But it made for a great distraction."

Beller was confused for a moment before her eyes widened and she spun around to look at the vat. Centurion was hanging onto the large tub of molten slag, planting two bombs on the side. She roared and leapt at him, denting the floor panels behind her, but Centurion had already jumped off and pressed the detonator. The bombs exploded and both the vat, and Beller, were engulfed in a huge burst of flames that destroyed the catwalk and everything near it.

Darren felt the catwalk under him collapse and scrambled to maintain his footing. Centurion leapt onto the collapsing bridge and grabbed Darren in mid-air as they fell. Centurion took the brunt of the fall and tucked into a roll just as Darren surrounded them both in a tightly wound TK barrier as the flames washed over them.

XXXXXX

Pisces was a man who was rarely ruled by his emotions like some of his brothers and sisters. It was counterproductive and made you act recklessly. People like Aquarius and Leo were ruled by their emotions and it made them stupid, easy to fool. Pisces often looked down on such people, but at the moment, he was on the verge of going into a blind rage.

Three years of studying that alien text to create a new breed of human that could possibly supplant the older generation of degenerates that populated this planet. Three years of sleepless nights and listening to Aquarius and Aries act like damn children who get angry whenever something doesn't go their way. He wasn't going to let this go to hell just because of a bunch of alien pacifists and three children.

Marching toward the entrance of the base, he saw the black talos decimating talos units with lightning bolts that easily tore the upgraded units apart. Farther out, the inhuman squadrons were losing the advantage their surprise attack granted them as the Autobots forced them to use up more energy than needed to fight. Pisces knew that, for all their power, inhumans were also startlingly vulnerable. The tactical advantage of their deployment lasted only as long as their stamina lasted. Once they fatigued, they _had_ to rest or they'd risk pushing themselves beyond their limits cause their powers to backfire-namely in the form of a distortion halo exploding their bodies. He was hoping that Sankt's men would've overpowered the Autobots before they were pushed their limits, but once again he underestimated the Autobots, or more specifically, Optimus Prime.

"If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself." He muttered, glaring at the battle in front of him. "Starting with that little pest."

As he exited the base, white lines appeared along his skin, and smoke rose from his body as his temperature began to rise. His eyes, glowing a deep amber gold, sparked with energy and his muscles tensed and bugled. There was a reason Pisces never fought, it wasn't because he didn't know how to fight, but mainly because his power wasn't something he could use repeatedly in most situations. Things were destroyed and people died when he fought in battle. This was the power he was born with, a power he called…the Titan.

"Come on and get some!" Annie cackled as she took down more talos. Some tanks tried to flank her, but a quick burst from her beam bazooka swiftly took them out. A dozen Codarls destroyed and she was still running on a full tank. "Man, this is too easy!"

Annie's celebration was cut short when she saw a bright flash of light coming from inside the base's entrance hall. Startled, she spun her talos around and saw something forming in the energy surge.

"What the hell is going on?" Annie blinked.

She got her answer in the form of a thunderous roar that filled the air, rattling her bones. Then from the thick cloud of steam came a large armored fist that slammed into Enyo's face and knocked it off its feet, sending it to the ground. Annie screamed as she was rocked in her seat, bumping her shoulder against her right monitor. Her screen flickered a bit before she focused on the being that punched her, and it was certainly a sight to see.

The giant's appearance was humanoid, but also inhuman in various aspects. It was probably 35 feet tall, and covered in hard white skin that looked almost like a coating of slate. Like the scales of a fish, or perhaps like armor, white plates wrapped around its body in several places. Its face too was covered in the same white plates. As a result, the giant's expression was completely unreadable. His body clad entirely in armor, Pisces had become a giant that those under his command had christened as the "Armored Titan".

Pisces glared down at the talos under him through glass covered eyes, lifting a foot over Enyo and stomping on its chest. Growling, he started increasing the pressure on the cockpit, intending to crush the girl inside. Annie tried lifting her arm to fire her bazooka, but a swift kick nearly tore her talos' arm off and knocked the bazooka away.

'This is what happens to people who get in my way!' Pisces thought angrily and pressed harder, hearing a metallic groan coming from the machine under him. Just a few more seconds and this pest will be gone forever.

"That's enough!"

Pisces instinctively lifted his arm just as a glowing orange axe came down on him. It dug into his armored forearm, burning through his hard skin and into the flesh underneath. Pisces grunted and stumbled back, venting steam from his plated mouth. He glared at the red and blue form of Optimus Prime as he marched toward him.

"That's no way to treat a lady." Optimus said, deploying his battle blade from his arm. He walked over to Enyo and helped it up. "Annie, what are you doing here?"

"Saving you guys, what do you think?" Annie replied. Optimus stared at her until she gave him a proper answer. "Fine, I'm pulling agro for Darren, Sara and Centurion."

"For what?"

He got his answer in the form of the supermarket behind them suddenly breaking out into a series of explosions that came from the lower level. A minute later, the entire building exploded in a tower of flames so powerful that Optimus, Annie and Pisces were blown off their feet by the blast wave. A large fireball rose into the air high above the town for all to see, followed by a thick cloud of black smoke that blocked out the sun.

Whistling in satisfaction, Annie turned to Optimus and said, "So they can do that."

XXXXXX

Once it was safe, Darren released his barrier and fell onto his back. Beside him, Centurion looked no worse for wear save for a few burns and dents. They looked around at the destruction they caused, pleased to note that the Forge was completely destroyed and none of the inhumans survived. In fact, they probably blew up most of the command center too.

"It's gone." Centurion said, patting Darren's shoulder. "All of it. We did it, Darren."

"Thank heavens." Darren breathed and lowered his aching head.

Suddenly the ground under them exploded and centurion was blasted in the chest by a blue energy bolt. He crashed into the debris was buried under a half melted support beam, splitting apart into the Street Action Team as they scattered like leaves. Darren landed on his shoulder and crashed against a rock, dazed and in pain. Gripping his shoulder in pain, Darren coughed up blood and struggled to get up.

"No!"

Darren looked up and saw Beller limping toward him. Her body was covered in severe burns that were already healing, her arms and legs were mangled but were slowly repairing themselves. She was practically on top of the epicenter of the explosion and she was still alive.

"My god." He whispered.

"No more games. I'm done playing around with you fucking brats!" Beller snarled. "You think a freak like you and your toy robots can kill me? I am a god compared to you!"

Before she could tear him apart, a large pipe slammed into Beller and sent her crashing into a pile of burning rubble. Darren jumped back in shock, thinking it was the Minicons that saved him, but when a human girl jumped in front of him, he could scarcely believe his eyes.

"Gina?"

He thought he was dreaming, or at least suffering from a mild concussion from that punch he took earlier, but the pain in his hand assured him that it was real. Gina was real. And she was alive.

She stood tall and strong, completely healed of the wounds she had before. Clad in only a thin sleeveless t-shirt that barely fit her and a pair of sweatpants, Gina looked no different from before. But she didn't have her glasses and her clear blue eyes radiated power. Gina was an Inhuman now.

"Time for round three." She said.

Beller shot out of the rubble at them, already in the processing of generating her halo effect. Gina pushed Darren back and summoned her own halo to counteract Beller's. The two energy waves clashed and created a powerful surge that tore apart the already decimated lab area. Once that was averted, Gina rushed in and activated another halo effect, focusing her sight right on Beller and unleashing a powerful beam.

Beller barely had time to be shocked as she was hit square in the chest and sent bouncing along the torn, debris-ridden ground like a ball before slamming into a superheated piece of metal that used to be the vat. Coughing, she glared at the blonde girl and jumped back up, running in a wide circle around Gina to flank her.

This battle would later be chronicled as the first serious fight between inhumans. Both combatants were out to kill and they were both powerful in their own right, but Beller had her powers longer than Gina, who was using hers for the first time. Pushing herself so far so fast was extremely dangerous for a new inhuman, but one thing Gina could boast over Beller's combat prowess was her brain.

Gina crouched low and leapt into the air like a rocket, propelling herself upwards on her newly enhanced muscles and summoned another halo effect, creating a ring of explosions under her to interrupt Beller's flanking maneuver. Beller tried to escape, and when that proved impossible, she tried to block the explosions with her halo effect, but she was overpowered and sent flying back headfirst into the melted remains of a metal beam.

Gina landed on the ground and sprinted over to where Beller fell. The woman slowly pushed herself up, feeling weakened and enraged at being pushed this far to her limits by a little girl. Seeing Gina charge at her, she snarled and leapt forward, completely forgoing using her halo effect anymore.

Beller leapt at Gina, fist pulled back intending to smash the girl's skull in for good measure. However, just as she threw her punch at Gina's face, her fist was blocked by something, an invisible force field. Beller momentarily glanced at Darren, who protected Gina with his telekinesis seconds before her blow could land. Beller locked eyes with Gina for a few quick seconds before the girl shoved her hand through Beller's chest.

Blood welled up in Beller's throat and spilled past her lips as Gina's hand punched through her chest cavity, rupturing her right lung and going through her spine. She weakly grabbed Gina's neck and began to squeeze, still glaring at her as she slowly died. Gina wasn't affected by her grip; even when dying, Beller was moving on instinct at this point.

'So much hatred, so much loathing.' She thought. 'Enough is enough.'

Gina created a small halo effect in her eyes and aimed it at Beller's head. Everything above Beller's neck was completely vaporized in a ball of blue energy, and her body went still. Gina pulled her bloody hand from the headless corpse and threw it to the ground, and took a deep breath to calm herself. She wasn't forgetting that sight anytime soon.

"G-Gina?"

She opened her eyes and saw Darren, High Wire, Grindor and Sureshock standing there, staring at her with wide eyes. They were still trying to believe that she was real and not some hallucination from the fumes. Gina had no idea what to say to her friends, who thought she was dead just two days ago and decided to Yolo it.

"Hey, guys," Gina said hesitantly. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

Sureshock barreled into her as she hugged her dear friend tightly and never let go.

XXXXXX

Something snapped in Pisces' mind when he saw the Forge, and the base, go up in flames. He spun back towards Optimus and Annie and charged at them with a roar.

Optimus reacted quickly, racing forward and punching Pisces in the face. The transformed Zodiac was hardly fazed by the blow and rammed into Prime, who skidded back along the asphalt. Optimus wrapped his arms around Pisces' middle and lifted him off the ground, high over his head and threw him to the ground. The ground shook from the two titans wrestling and Annie wisely stepped back to avoid getting caught up in the fist fight. Pisces got back to his feet and ran at Prime again, but a small golden hammer slammed into the side of his head, knocking him over.

It was Mjolnir, which Annie shot at him when he was distracted. Pisces regained his balance and charged at Annie, who tried to get her hammer back, but Pisces grabbed her talos by the arms and lifted the heavy talos off its feet, swinging it around to throw it at Optimus. Prime caught Annie's machine with a grunt and stumbled back while Pisces prepared to ram into them at full speed.

" _Pisces!"_

Skorpios rolled up beside Pisces, missing two legs and armor pieces that were blasted off by Prowl and Ironhide. Pisces ignored him as he marched toward Prime.

" _The battle is lost, you damn fool!"_ Scorpio drove in front of Pisces. _"We've lost. We must retreat or we'll lose the few inhumans we still have left!"_

Pisces knew he was right, but he wanted to kill someone so badly and Prime was just standing there feet away from him. Still, all was lost, and with the plant gone all he had was the supply of the catalyst he had in storage off site. Forcing himself to calm down, Pisces stood back and growled, the armor plates over his mouth pulling back to reveal a set of sharp teeth to vent steam from his mouth. He ran away with Scorpio, who signaled their surviving forces to retreat from the town.

"Wait, they're running. That means…" Annie's shocked face broke into a grin and she cheered. "WE WON! WE FUCKING DID IT!"

Her loud cheer was heard by the other weary Autobots, who also began cheering and seeing to each other. Optimus ran over to the remains of the burning base and dug through the wreckage to reveal the lower level, where he found Darren and the others trying to dig themselves out. They were all alive and in one piece, though exhausted and hurt, but what surprised Optimus the most was seeing Gina with them, healthy as a lamb.

Seeing the awestruck looks among the Autobots, Gina smiled shyly and waved at them. This was going to take some time to explain.

XXXXXX

The Autobots and Minicons returned to the Ark victorious. Everyone was overjoyed upon seeing Gina alive and healed, but none were as happy to see each other as Theo and Gina. Father and daughter, both turned inhumans unwillingly, were together again after three years.

There were still questions about Gina's supposed resurrection. Stephanie, who was overseeing Gina after she was revived from her "death", believed that Gina's sudden death was a result of her body shutting down to repair itself. The catalyst basically rewrote Gina's genetic code, remaking everything from the ground up to purge anything that it considered as an "impurity". The process itself took a day longer than the average inhuman due to her severe injuries, but her rapid maturation was a result of her body not being as developed as an adult's. No one bothered to ask any more serious questions; Gina was alive and that was all that mattered.

"That was an incredibly risky move, Ratchet." Optimus scolded the medic in the privacy of his office. "What if Gina really did die? What would you have done then?"

"I was well aware of the risks involved, Optimus, but I wasn't going to stand by and watch her slowly die." Ratchet said. "I had to do something. It's my job."

Losing Gina had scared him more than anything in his career as a medic, and few things cared him in that line of work. She wasn't some part-time assistant; she meant something more to him. She was something that he understood very little about; family. Gina was like that granddaughter he never could have, and he was proud of what she became.

Optimus couldn't refute his decisions, but he warned him not to do that again without talking to him first. "Hopefully, something like this will never happen again."

"Hopefully." Ratchet nodded.

"Where is Gina?" Prime asked. "Sara and Mr. Harkins are looking for her. They're planning to head back home to explain everything to her mother."

Ratchet smiled. "She's taking care of some private business first. I suggest waiting a little bit before calling her."

XXXXXX

Outside, Darren and Gina sat atop the outer hull of the Ark, enjoying the silence. They said nothing as they just let the natural peacefulness of their environment drown out the harrowing events of the past few days. All they wanted to do was enjoy each other's company.

"You know, it's kind of funny." Gina said.

"What is?" Darren asked.

"Today's January 15th, my birthday. I'm officially fourteen now, and I was revived just a few hours ago." She hummed, eyes closed. "Does this mean I'm born again?"

"Maybe. Gaia knows that the process was just as violent as actual childbirth." Darren chuckled. Then he looked down at his hands. "I'm sorry."

Gina glanced at him. "For what?"

"For not getting you a present. I haven't gotten you anything over the past week, and the most I could give you was almost getting killed by a psychopathic superwoman."

"Well, almost dying aside, I can think of something you could give me right now." Gina smirked.

"Really?" Darren asked. "What's that?"

Gina turned his face towards hers and pressed her lips against his in a full-on kiss. Darren's eyes grew wide before they closed and he returned the kiss. They were like that for a minute before pulling away.

"How's that for fireworks?" Darren smiled.

Gina giggled and leaned in for another kiss. Before they joined their lips together, Darren whispered one last sentence.

"Happy birthday, Gina."


	13. Armada

Chapter 13-Armada

It was early morning in Osea's Midwestern region as Flamewar and Airachnid passed through a canyon in their vehicle modes. Seeing two unmanned vehicles was strange, but Airachnid's cybertronian helicopter mode (she forgone scanning a Terran disguise because she saw no need, and she liked hunting in her own skin) definitely stood out. Luckily, there was no one around to really take notice of it.

Things were dull since their failed attempt to kill Nightshade. Since that night, Flamewar moved in with Airachnid, who had her own hive of pilfered Insecticons at her beck and call. It was a sweet deal she had won herself. Sure, it wasn't all that glamorous to be living with a bunch of Shockwave's science experiments, but Airachnid made up for it. She was a femme that was quite easy on the eyes.

Finally, after spending weeks looking for energon and just keeping track of the Con's movements to make sure she was up to date on current events, Airachnid suddenly announced that they were taking a little trip and dragged Flamewar along without much explanation.

"Are you sure you don't want to tell me now?" Flamewar asked, bored and annoyed at driving through this unassuming landscape with absolutely nothing to do and nothing to kill. "You know I don't like surprises."

"Telling you would spoil the surprise, Flamewar. Just be patient." Airachnid said with a smirk in her voice.

"I was never a patient one." Flamewar grumbled.

"Then this is a good time to learn." She remarked.

They continued on for a few more minutes until they reached the foot of a small mountain created from a landslide caused by the clashing of two rock formations. Flamewar, not really paying attention, took a bit longer to notice the large black and purple ship sitting at the foot of the slope half buried in rocks and dirt, but she did notice it, she transformed to robot mode with wide eyes. It was a cybertronian vessel! Flamewar couldn't really get a handle on its construction, since it was definitely smaller than the average Decepticon spacecraft, but something told her that this ship's design was older than this time period.

"The things you find in your spare time." Flamewar shook her head. "So whose ship is it? Autobot or Decepticon?"

"No idea. Judging from the design though, it looks rather similar to a pre-war scout ship. Possibly the senate's." Airachnid said. "What the hell this thing is doing on this planet is the question."

"This thing can't be older than Sentinel Prime's time." Flamewar stepped closer to the ship, hoping that it was at least repairable. "Never knew he sent out these ships."

"Sentinel's done a lot of things behind closed doors. This ship was definitely prepped for scouting out potential worlds to conquer…had the war not started." Airachnid transformed and landed next to Flamewar. "One of my scout teams found this baby a few days ago. Do you like it?"

Flamewar smiled. "I love it."

They got closer to the ship, which had a faded name inscribed on the side of the hull-Harbinger. It was a long, pointed ship with silver armor that was rusted from presumably years of inactivity. The two femmes pulled open the doors to reveal a dark, dank interior, with rust lining the walls and inactive machinery that hadn't seen the light of day in decades. The ship wasn't even that big either, as they searched almost the entire vessel in just half an hour. They combed through the rooms from top to bottom but couldn't find anything useful; no weapons, no CR chambers, not even energon!

"Ugh, this place is useless!" Flamewar groaned. Her voice echoed through the halls even though she wasn't talking that loudly. "What's this place even for if not military expansion?"

Airachnid followed close behind her, looking around with her bright magenta colored segmented eyes. Even if they did find energon, it would've gone bad after years of not being touched. She pursed her lips and idly glanced at a closed door that she almost passed over had she not did a double-take.

"Wait," She said and waved Flamewar over. "Take a look at this."

Flamewar walked over to her and pressed a button to open it. The doors partially slid open with a rusty groan and Airachnid pushed it open the rest of the way to enter the room. It looked like a lab, complete with a recharge slab for operations, a few stasis pods and equipment for medical and scientific operations.

"Now we're getting somewhere." Flamewar said and eyed the dark stasis pods hanging on the wall. "Switch the lights on, I think I see something."

Airachnid pressed a button that turned some of the lights on and allowed them to see more of the room. When the lights flickered on above the stasis pods, Flamewar whistled when she saw that they weren't empty. The pods held five tall-silver mannequin-like bodies that lacked any visible features.

"Protoforms?" Airachnid said, puzzled.

Flamewar smirked. "Blank protoforms."

XXXXXX

Moonracer sang along with a teen pop song she had blaring on her radio as she drove down a road in the good old mid-west. It was her turn on recon duty, and her holomatter (a pretty young teenager with short green hair and light freckles framing her chubby face) was bobbing her head to the tune. Humans had wonderful music and it made her spirits soar when she got to enjoy everything this new world had to offer.

Spending so many years wandering the underground of her dead homeworld with no one but the wayward tribes of scavengers who barely survived on what pockets of energon they could find within the planet's mantle was hard on her. They helped her as best they could, but it didn't stave off that feeling of loneliness that hit her whenever she was alone. Honestly, Moonracer was surprised she remained sane in that period of time, but her fortitude was rewarded when her sister of all people returned to Cybertron with the Valkyries.

Arcee said that she was dead, but she didn't feel dead, nor did she remember being killed. Not that she wanted to remember that. At this point, she just wanted to live her life protecting the people who cared for her.

'Life sure works in mysterious ways.' Moonracer thought.

Her scanner beeped, signaling energon was nearby. Moonracer cut her radio off and called the Ark. "Moonracer to base, I'm checking out an energon signal. I'll update you if I find anything."

She drove off the road and through a grassy field towards a small hill with a deep hole in it. It wouldn't have been such a strange sight had the pit not clearly been drilled all the way to the bottom. Moonracer transformed and kneeled over the pit, whistling as she saw a huge stack of energon cubes sitting at the bottom.

"Energon? Stocked and ready for take-out?" Moonracer muttered and rubbed her chin. "Looks like this is a job for Moonracer!"

She hopped inside the pit and started to slowly climb down, unaware of the hidden transmitters built into the walls of the pit. One of these transmitters she tried to use as a foothold, but her foot slipped and she lost her grip.

"Ah!" She screamed as she fell into the pit and crashed head first into the pile of cubes. She was knocked out upon impact, so she didn't get to see the transmitters in the wall of the tunnel started to glow and crackle with energy. Moonracer and the energon cubes were surrounded by an energy field that grew in intensity before they all vanished in a bright burst of light.

XXXXXX

Five protoforms sat in stasis pods, fully formed and lifeless, just sitting there for anyone to use…like Flamewar. She stood in front of them smirking as ideas ran through her head.

Protoforms were embryonic cybertronians, born from the harvesting of Sparks and the base metals they were born in. Composed of sentio metallico, living metal that was harvested from Cybertron, they were akin to embryos that grew within a week of being born. Blank protoforms were large clumps of sentio metallico that were artificially manipulated into a humanoid form, lacking a Spark to animate them. These clumps of metallic clay were perfect for provided readymade bodies for cold constructed Sparks, molded into featureless mannequins and stored in stasis pods for future use. But while they were mostly used to provide bodies for wayward Sparks, Flamewar had more sinister purposes for these bodies.

"Clones?" Airachnid blinked at Flamewar. "You're planning to make clones?"

"Yes, clones I can send to kill Nightshade and the rest of her loyalists." Flamewar said. "After all, by myself I am little more than a nuisance to Nightshade. But a whole team of femmes with my experience and skillset will be a tangible threat that might get the job done."

"The keyword being might. Nightshade and Dreadwing aren't exactly slouches."

"Who said I was fighting them head on? It's better to shoot your enemy in the back than risk getting killed directly fighting them." Flamewar replied.

Airachnid frowned and looked down at the computer in front of her. With this ship being a science/exploration vessel, it stood to reason that it was possible to make clones from the five blanks with the equipment they had on hand. The formula in the ship's files was fairly straight forward and easy enough. It certainly wouldn't hurt to try.

Flamewar laid down on the medical slab and was placed into induced stasis; the operation was something that she didn't want to be conscious for. Using her "accurate" knowledge on cybertronian anatomy and medical science, Airachnid got to work on using an energon scalpel to carve small pieces of Flamewar's Spark into little containment cells. This was the only way to properly cut into a Spark without ripping the laser core out. She severed five fragments from Flamewar's original Spark and placed them into the blank protoforms, then injected five samples of her energon into the tubes.

Airachnid waited for Flamewar to recover from her surgery before activating the magnetic coils that supercharged the stasis pods with immense amounts of electricity.

The tired Flamewar grinned as she saw the protoforms inside twitch and shake as energy flowed through their forms. This lengthy process mixed Flamewar's CNA with that of the blank genetic structure of the protoforms, molding her very essence into them. The entire operation only took a little over an hour, and soon the protoforms began to take shape.

"Beautiful." She whispered as she saw the five protoforms morph into five identical clones of herself. This was going to be a good day.

XXXXXX

Moonracer woke up lying in an awkward position face down in a pile of energon cubes. Groaning, she sat up and looked around, seeing that she was stuck in some storage room of some kind. The walls were dark purple and heavily plated, and the lights were a dim violet. The aura of the whole place just screamed "death" and it made her a little uncomfortable.

"I am not supposed to be here." Moonracer muttered and got to her feet. Opening the door, she peeked out and quietly sneaked out into the hallway, tiptoeing so as to avoid making too much noise. She barely took two steps before she heard voices coming down the hall. "Oh scrap!"

Moonracer squeezed herself into a corner and held still as Starscream and Knockout walked down the hall toward the storage room.

"At least the orbital bounce went smoothly," Knockout said. "All energon cubes are accounted for, though some are slightly damaged for some reason."

"As long as they're still usable, I can stand a few dented cubes. At least we can move energon quickly now." Starscream said. "Ground bridges are fine and all, but not really efficient in transporting large amounts of energon."

"And repairs of the Nemesis are going well, so we might be able to fix the reactor core within two weeks' time." Knockout said.

"Make that a week, Knockout." Starscream ordered.

Knockout crossed his arms. "Not possible."

"I'll decide when it's possible!" Starscream growled. "We have sufficient means to transport energon quickly, so energy isn't a problem anymore. Right now, we need to fix the Nemesis so we don't have to live in that cramped base anymore!"

'The Nemesis? I'm on the Nemesis?!' Moonracer thought, internally panicking. 'Oh scrap, I'm screwed. How the hell did I get here?'

As Starscream and Knockout got farther down the hall, Moonracer snuck out of cover and ran around the corner. Navigating a warship this size would be near impossible, especially for someone who had no idea where everything is. She could barely find her way around the Ark, so trying to tell heads from tails on one of the largest Decepticon ships in history was practically impossible.

It was only dumb luck that she found a computer terminal around the next corner. She gave a soft cheer and ran over to it with the intention of calling her friends for help (and maybe even telling them where the Decepticons' base was located). But as she looked at the console, she realized something that took the wind from her sails…she had no idea how to work it.

"I fragging hate this ship!" Moonracer raged. She never knew how to work fancy techno-doohickeys like this, and she certainly had no idea how to work Decepticon tech. So Moonracer did the only thing she could in this situation-press buttons randomly until she hit the right one and pray that no one potted her playing solitaire on their military network. It was a technique that Annie taught her once, something called Yolo.

As expected of such a strategy, it went sour not two seconds later as she accidentally set of the klaxon alarms. She cursed and got the hell out of dodge just as Thundercracker and Demolishor ran around the corner.

"What set this thing off?" Demolishor asked. Thundercracker pressed a button and shut the alarm off, frowning at the screen.

"I have no idea, but someone was trying to enter random commands into it." He said.

"Probably Search, Primus knows he does this to test our patience." Demolishor huffed.

They walked away from the console, completely missing that the ship's locator was switched on in Moonracer's tangent.

XXXXXX

Flamewar hummed in approval as she inspected her five clones from top to bottom. They were perfect, identical clones of her, alike in every way, right down to the smallest bolt. Mirror images that were subservient to her and inherited all her innate skills and experience. It was worth that stinging pain in her chest. She wouldn't be at one hundred percent for some time after the surgery, but she could stand that.

"Nightshade, I've got something on the computer." Airachnid said.

"What is it?" Flamewar asked.

"A Decepticon emergency beacon," Airachnid replied. "And it's a large one."

"The Nemesis!" Flamewar grinned and turned to her clones. "All right, ladies, we've got ten minutes until show time. What's your mission?"

"To annihilate Megatron and all those loyal to him." The clones chorused in unison. They even spoke at exactly the same time.

"And what's our goal?"

"To kill Arcee and prove our superiority!"

"No, our second goal."

"Total leadership of the Decepticons!"

Airachnid hummed in appreciation she studied the clones. "They're certainly obedient."

"That they are. You like them?"

"Yes, but nothing beats the original." Airachnid smirked.

The two femmes returned to the cave entrance leading to the cavern of slumbering Insecticons, where Airachnid used her power over them to awaken the swarm.

" _Devoted subjects, the time has come!"_ Airachnid said, summoning the almost half of the Insecticon hive with her mental connection to the overgrown vermin. " _The time for the ultimate retribution_!"

The Insecticons heard their queen…and they obeyed.

XXXXXX

"Still no word from Moon, Ratchet?" Arcee asked as she entered the room with Optimus.

"Nothing yet, I'm afraid. But I am getting something else." Ratchet pointed to the monitor. "Teletran's picking up some seismic activity in the mid-west, and a lot of biosignals."

"How many?" Optimus asked.

"About three dozen rapidly moving across the country. I can't ID any of them, but I do have a biosignal from the origin point that belongs to a certain someone you're familiar with, Arcee."

"Flamewar." Arcee growled.

"Ratchet, call any Autobots on site to the shuttle bay. Arcee, you're with me." Optimus said and went to the door. "We need to contain this before things get out of hand."

XXXXXX

Flamewar watched her clones fly off with the insecticon swarm with a smile. Five assassins leading a swarm of insecticon soldiers to finish off Nightshade's dying Decepticons. It was something she hated to miss, but she still wasn't completely at full power yet, and she wasn't risking a one on one confrontation with Nightshade that was sure to get her killed. Still, she couldn't help but have a few doubts about the success of this little operation.

"Do you think your Insecticons are up to the task?" She asked Airachnid.

"Of course they are. The Cons may be strong, but against a third of our hive, they won't stand a chance." Airachnid scoffed. "Your clones just better be ready to deliver."

Flamewar huffed and went to retort when she winced and clutched her chest. Airachnid moved to help her, but Flamewar waved her off and grinned.

"She's here." Flamewar laughed. "Arcee!"

"Flamewar!"

That familiar war cry was followed by a pink blur shooting towards them. Flamewar and Airachnid jumped apart to dodge Arcee's attack as she slammed into the ground. The pink Autobot wasted no time as she charged at Flamewar and began slashing away at her with her swords. Flamewar dodged Arcee's flaming swords, but her reaction time was slower than before thanks to the surgery weighing her down. When Arcee scored a cut on her upper arm, Flamewar hissed and transformed to vehicle mode to drive away.

"Get back here!" Arcee yelled and also transformed to chase after her into the forest.

Airachnid looked up and saw Optimus, Jazz and Ironhide running down the slope shooting at her. Scowling, she sent out her mental command to call a few insecticons back.

" _Rear guard, defend your queen!"_

Twelve insecticons split off from the assault group heading for the Nemesis and returned to the forest to attack the Autobots. Optimus and his team turned their attention to the approaching group of insecticons that began firing ruby red beams from their horns. As the two groups engaged in a fierce firefight, Airachnid used this chance to slip away in the direction Flamewar and Arcee went.

XXXXXX

Moonracer knew her survival depended on her finding the ship's ground bridge. All modern ships had one, and if she could find it, then she could get the hell off this boat and back to the Ark.

'But I don't even know where the ground bridge is!' Moonracer thought despondently.

Right now she was hiding under the floor panels, right beneath the fuel lines in the walls. Almost thirty minutes had passed since she started wandering around the ship and she was getting scared. If she ran into Soundwave, she was done for!

As if her situation couldn't get any worse, she saw a pair of black armored feet walk up to her hiding place and held back a gasp. It was Nightshade! The Decepticon lieutenant was making her way down the hall when she got a call from another part of the ship.

" _Nightshade!"_ It was Nova Storm, and she didn't sound very calm.

"Yes, what is it?"

" _We're under attack, sir!"_

"Attack? By who-"

The ship rumbled a bit and both femmes heard loud explosions going on outside. Nightshade cursed and ran down the hall, finally leaving Moonracer alone once again.

"What now?" Moonracer groaned.

Nightshade ran onto the bridge, where she saw a huge swarm of insecticons flying around shooting at the ship. Soundwave and Leader-1 were already in the process of activating the ship's weapons.

"Insecticons? Where did they…?" Nightshade's face darkened when she already made the connection. "Flamewar!"

Demolishor ran onto the bridge with the other Cons and briskly saluted her. "Nightshade, what are your ord-"

"Get out there and kill as many of those damn bugs as possible!" nightshade yelled. "That goes for your team, Starscream. Get airborne and shoot them out of the damn sky!"

They nodded and ran out to route the attack on the ship. Nightshade turned to Dreadwing and Skyquake, whom she kept back. "You two are with me. We need to take care of any bugs that might get inside the ship."

"Yes, Nightshade." The brothers said as one.

"Soundwave, you know what to do."

Soundwave nodded. "Operation: Interference."

"Leader-1, man the other weapons with the Minicons. I want everyone on this island either defending this ship or killing those animals!" She said and powerlinked with Songbird. "And find out where they're coming from! I'm going to find Flamewar and tear her apart with my bare hands!"

XXXXXX

It was pure chaos outside the ship. Insecticon drones flew around the island, attacking anything in sight. Starscream's Seekers flew after them shooting down any insecticons they could find while avoid the laser blasts they fired back. Demolishor, powerlinked with Search, was in his tank mode shooting at the insecticons with his pulse cannons while Knockout, hefting a neutron cannon (which he got from who knows where) also contributed to the defense of the island. The Seekers pursued as many insecticons they could find and attacked indiscriminately. The grounded Nemesis was also providing extremely fierce resistance against the invasion, along with mounted turrets and launchers that were layered throughout the island in various places that were being controlled by the skeleton crew aboard the ship.

Amidst the confusion, the five clones of Flamewar sprinted through the forest towards the still mending hole in the ship's underside. Using their innate infiltration skills, the clones entered the ship through the hole and split up. With the Seekers and Demolishor busy fighting off the insecticons, only a handful of people were still in the Nemesis: Nightshade, Dreadwing, Skyquake, and Soundwave, along with the Minicons. Divide and conquer in its simplest form.

Nearby, Moonracer heard another explosion rock the ship and knew it was time to get out of there. Running out of her hiding place, she ran down the hall, hoping to find some elevator or door that could take her outside. When she turned a corner, she ran into another unpleasant surprise.

"Flamewar!" Moonracer exclaimed.

"Moonracer?" Clone 1 gaped. "H-How are you still alive? I killed you myself!"

"News of my demise was greatly exaggerated." Moonracer said darkly. She reached to her waist and pulled out her folded up rifle. "And what are you doing here? I thought Nightshade fired your ass."

"My business if my own." Clone 1 snarled, extending her arm blades. "Killing you again is just a bonus!"

Clone 1 lunged at Moonracer, who jumped back and shifted her rifle into its spear configuration. She spun around and deflected a strike from the clone before thrusting her blade forward. The clone leaned back to avoid the spear, but as she moved to the side, she heard a loud gunshot and felt a sharp pain in her arm. She stumbled back and looked at the sparkling stump where her right arm used to be.

"How did you…?" Clone 1 hissed, clutching at her bleeding arm.

"I've learned a few new tricks while I was stuck on Cybertron." Moonracer smirked and spun her weapon around again. "Like how to make kick ass weapons!"

Moonracer's movements were too quick for the unprepared clone to defend against, and thus with another slash of her spear, Moonracer cut off her leg below the knee.

"This is for Darren!"

She kicked Clone 1 in the chest, and used her sharp high heel to rip off a piece of the clone's chest plating. The clone tried to fight back, but Moonracer wouldn't give her the chance, smacking her in the face with the back of her heel hard enough to give the clone whiplash.

"This is for Arcee!"

Moonracer spun her spear around her body and used the blade to slice off Clone 1's other arm. The clone fell to the ground, energon leaking from the various wounds she had. She tried to push herself away from her little sister, but Moonracer stabbed the blunt tip of her spear into Clone 1's foot. Moonracer stood over her with an uncharacteristically murderous look on her face.

"And this is for me."

Moonracer raised her spear and brought it down on the clone in one final strike.

XXXXXX

An insecticon soldier had its head blown off by a powerful blast from Prime's ion rifle before Optimus back flipped over a soldier that tried to attack him from behind and cut him in half with a downward slash of his axe. Ironhide stood by him blasting away at anything that was an enemy, punching their faces in when they got close.

Jazz was leapfrogging the airborne insecticons, tearing off one drone's wings and having it crash into another soldier before hopping off and shooting another soldier in the face. He dropped to the ground and grappled onto another flying insecticon, pulling it over to Optimus. Prime grabbed the horns of a dead insecticon he just slain and slammed its body into the drone Jazz threw at him, smashing both bugs apart. Looking around at the carnage they left in their wake, Optimus realized that they were missing one member.

"Where's Arcee?" He asked.

"She bailed on us." Jazz said and looked around for the other femme. "And so did that freaky purple femme."

"Jazz, you're the fastest. Find Arcee before that femme gets to her first." Optimus said. "She can't find her and Flamewar by herself."

Jazz nodded and transformed to vehicle mode before speeding off into the forest.

Deeper in the forest, Flamewar and Arcee were still having their little chase through the trees. As it got harder to drive around, Arcee had taken her bipedal form and was hopping amongst the trees shooting at Flamewar, who was still in vehicle mode. Flamewar dodged the rain of laser bolts as she sped through the forest and drove straight for a fallen tree trunk that ramped upward. She sped off the ramp into the air, where Arcee slammed into her and they both crashed to the ground. Flamewar transformed and kicked Arcee off before reaching for her crossbow.

"My lucky day," Flamewar hissed. "I get to snuff out Nightshade and you-AAAAGHHHH!"

Flamewar dropped her weapon and keeled over as her right arm was engulfed in excruciating pain. She cursed and gripped her arm, staggering back. Arcee used her distraction to kick Flamewar in the face and punch her to the ground. The ex-Con tried to stand up, but one of her legs also erupted into unholy pain, allowing Arcee to elbow her in the back of the face.

'The clones!' Flamewar realized. 'One them is-dying. I can feel their pain!'

Her sister sent a punch to her face and kicked her in the chin, sending her smashing through another tree. Flamewar hit the ground in a daze, her mind going blank as her entire body was in searing pain. Arcee glared own at the whimpering femme with a cold look, drawing her sword.

"I don't know what's going on with you, but I sincerely hope that it hurts as much as it looks." Arcee said. "Whatever is happening to you, you probably deserved it."

Flamewar barely heard her sister. Her mind was assaulted by images-the flash of steel across her face, seeing her limbs get separated from her body…and Moonracer's face, standing over her with her weapon poised for a final strike. Flamewar's focus returned and she saw Arcee in the same position.

'N-no, I can't die here! I refuse to die here like this!' Flamewar thought angrily.

Arcee was about to cut Flamewar down with a sword to the skull, but two strands of thick webbing caught her arms. Arcee yelped as she was pulled off her feet and hit a tree. Seconds later, Airachnid jumped down from the trees and landed next to Flamewar.

"You don't look so hot." Airachnid said as she picked Flamewar up.

"Reckon I look better than you." Flamewar gasped, giving a scream as she felt a searing agony burst in her chest.

"In your dreams." Airachnid said and ran deeper into the forest.

"Wait!" Arcee yelled, moving to pursue, but was knocked to the ground by an insecticon bruiser. The insecticon howled and charged at her. Arcee tore the webbing off her hands and fired her blasters at its face. The bolts were deflected off its armored carapace and it lumbered towards her unrestrained.

It was so focused on Arcee that it didn't notice Jazz leap behind it until the saboteur stabbed two knives into its head. The insecticon fell to its knees in pain, and Arcee finished it off by stabbing her swords into its chest and carving out its torso plate. Jazz whistled at the gory move and stepped towards his student.

"Cee, you okay?"

"…No, I'm not okay!" Arcee growled, gnashing her teeth hard enough to produce sparks. She gave a roar and started hacking away at the insecticon's corpse, slicing at its armored hide and bleeding head as she vented her rage on the cadaver. "Every time I get close enough to see myself in that glitch's eyes, she finds some way to escape me! She always finds some way to escape death and live to kill another day! I'm so sick of it!"

"Cee, calm down. I know you're salty, but turning the insecticon into scrap isn't going to solve anything." Jazz said, placing a hand on her arm. "Autobots don't go on murderous rampages."

"I don't care. She almost killed Darren and destroyed his family. She killed Moonracer and made my life a living hell. But she won't hurt anyone else like that if I have anything to say about it. I promised myself that she was going to die and I won't stop until I see her die myself!" Arcee glared at the bloodied insecticon corpse and kicked its head off. "The next time I see her, she'll die by my hands. No games, no cop outs, no mercy!"

Jazz silently watched Arcee march away and then looked down at the ravaged corpse. People killing each other because one of them killed another. Was there no end to this hateful cycle?

XXXXXX

The battle was long and hard, but the Decepticons were slowly managing to widdle down the insecticon invaders ravaging their island. No insecticons got close to the ship thanks to the efforts of herself and the Seeker twins. Despite this, things were still going too slowly for Nightshade to accept and she still had no idea how they even got to the island.

"How the hell did they even find this place?" Nightshade asked herself. "Flamewar doesn't even know where the island is located."

She headed into the command bunker to better control the island's auto-defenses, but when she reached the command center, she saw a figure sitting on Megatron's throne. Nightshade was surprised but only for a second.

"Hello, Nightshade." Flamewar greeted smugly.

"Flamewar," Nightshade spat. "Must be a busy day for assassins."

"Do you like my new soldiers? Turns out Airachnid had a whole hive in reserve, and this is barely even a third of what we command. They're remnants of the hive Shockwave left on this world deca-cycles ago." Flamewar grinned. "The assault was just a distraction to get me close to you."

Nightshade took out Gandiva and aimed it at Flamewar's infuriatingly smug face. "All these insecticons and you choose to fight me alone?"

"Not alone."

Nightshade glanced to the shadows, where she saw three more clones of Flamewar walking out into the open, their blasters pointed at her. Nightshade was honestly surprised by seeing the clones, but her shock turned to amusement as she laughed right in their faces.

"Ha! This is grand. You actually used clones to try to fight me? Sweetheart, you should've tried something more original. I'm insulted." She said.

Clone 2 frowned and stood up from the throne. "I wouldn't be so jovial in your position. We have you outnumbered four to one. You're trapped here with us."

"Let's face it, Flamewar. You're predictable no matter how many of you there are. Chances are that the original is not even here, probably hiding away in a cave somewhere in off chance that I slaughter you all-or that you might turn on each other."

You lie!" Clone 3 yelled. "We are one and the same. Our goals mesh."

"And yet your creator is a conniving little wench too scared to face me in person." Nightshade snarled. "You morons don't even realize she sent you to die!"

Her sensible words were throwing the clones off. Confusing them. Nightshade held back a smirk.

"Even if you kill me, you're all just going to turn on each other for control. Face it," She pressed. "It's within your nature."

The will of the clones was faltering. They all looked unsure of themselves as they processed the Decepticon lieutenant's words. But they forced themselves to focus on the mission they were given and planned to complete to the letter.

"Don't listen to her, she's just trying to stall for time." Clone 4 said and raised her blaster. "We fire on three. 1…2…3…"

Suddenly the lights cut out, bathing the bridge in complete darkness. The clones panicked and fired their blasters, nearly hitting each other.

"What's going on?!"

"Who turned out the lights?"

"I can't see!"

"Don't shoot or we'll hit each other!"

"Wait," Clone 2 yelled. "What's that sound?"

Clone 2 was stabbed in the chest by a glowing purples energo-sword, which sliced upwards and cut her in two. The glow of the blade reflected off the left half of Soundwave's face as he charged at Clone 3, severing her blaster arms and impaling her in the chest. Clone 4 tried to shoot him in the back, but she was grabbed by the back of the neck and was thrown to the floor. She looked up and saw Nightshade standing over her, Gandiva's string pulled back, its white glow illuminating Nightshade's face.

"You may not be the original Flamewar, but I'm going to enjoy killing you all the same." She said. She released the bow and fired the arrow into Clone 4's chest, exploding the femme from the inside out.

XXXXXX

It took a lot of searching, but eventually Moonracer was able to find the shuttle bay where the Nemesis' ground bridge was located. A quick look at the controls enabled her to set a random jump to some coordinates in Osea. She switched on the bridge after typing in the coordinates and grinned.

"So long, bozos, I'm out of here!" Moonracer cheered. "But before I go…"

Moonracer took out a remote and pressed a button. In a little act of naughtiness, she had snatched up a few munitions from the Nemesis' weapons stores…shape charges and bombs that she planted throughout the ship while she searched for the ground bridge. As soon as she pressed the button, the charges she planted on the energon fuel lines detonated all at once throughout the ship.

Moonracer grinned and jumped into the portal, which shut off right after she entered it.

XXXXXX

Nightshade stood on the beach looking at the pieces of the insecticon swarm they had killed, their rusting parts buried in the sand to be carried off by the ocean waves. The grim carnage reflected her pour mood.

It was a hollow victory. Somehow, the Nemesis' energon lines had been completely destroyed, taking out the ship's means to transfer power to crucial systems. It was an act of sabotage, Soundwave would later find out, caused by none other than Moonracer, who somehow snuck onto the ship without anyone seeing her. She had planted bombs all along the energon fuel lines and detonated them before going into the ground bridge and now the ship was running on reserve power again. What's worse, Megatron's CR chamber was also low on energy and wasn't working at optimal efficiency.

"Nightshade," Dreadwing called out. He walked up to her on the beach and noted how despondent she looked. "Are you alright?"

"What do you think?" She replied bitterly. "Ever since I took command, things have been going downhill for us. Flamewar killing Barricade, the insecticon swarm, our ship taking critical damage from an Autobot infiltrator. I always told Megatron I was not cut out for leadership, and this is why. I'm a fragging bad luck charm."

"Lieutenant, you cannot blame yourself for these events. Anything can happen in war, no matter how much we prepare for them." Dreadwing said. He knew she was not one to vent out her feelings unless she was with Soundwave or Songbird, so he knew she trusted him not to breathe a word about her lamentations to anyone else.

Nightshade wasn't convinced. "No, Dreadwing. The reality is that ever since Megatron's defeat, we're losing ground on this planet. And the Autobots aren't even the ones dealing the critical blows half the time."

She sighed and looked out into the ocean. "What kind of leader am I, if I can't even lead my people into battle properly?"

XXXXXX

Arcee sat alone in the rec room, solemnly staring down at her reflection in her glass of energon. The recent battle and losing her one chance at killing Flamewar still annoyed her, but most of her rage burned itself out a while ago, leaving her worn out and tired.

"Sis!"

Moonracer ran into the room, looking like she had been driving around in a dust devil, which she had. The random ground bridge dropped her off in the middle of a rocky desert just as a dust devil started to pick up speed and she was caught in the ensuing storm. She had sand and dust everywhere!

"You would not believe the day I had!" She exclaimed. Then she noticed how worn out her big sister looked. "Um, you feeling okay there sis?"

Arcee stared at her for a minute before standing up and walking over to her. She pulled Moonracer into a tight hug and rocked her back and forth.

"I am now."


	14. The Sound of Silence

Chapter 14-The Sound of Silence

The planet Charr was a molten world still in the throes of primeval creation. It was one large spherical volcano with mountains of ash and brimstone bordered by lakes of lava. The sky was eternally black from thick clouds of smoke and ash, and the sun never showed its face to this hellish planet. The infernal atmosphere would burn the lungs of any organic, and even the average cybertronian would be hard pressed to withstand such conditions. Which made it the perfect place for the Decepticons to make the seat of their growing empire.

The ash mountains and lava lakes of Charr was a familiar sight to Ember, who lived here in secret for the past three million years. Charr was the headquarters of the Decepticon Empire, the staging grounds of high command. This planet was enthralled in chaos brought about by nature, powerful and uncontrollable, all the while self-destructive. The best descriptions of the average Decepticon.

'Once they were a force fighting to instill a new order that would bring about another Golden Age, a new future for our kind.' Ember thought. 'Now the Decepticons seek to destroy, for they now have nothing else to fight for. Pathetic.'

Ember stood in the study of the secret base she had built on Charr, far from the Decepticon city that was built to house the central hub of Decepticon high command. She had a good view of the lava lakes and ash mountains that rose high above the landscape, as well as the orbital base floating around the planet. Charr rarely saw any action, and it was mostly used for the same reasons as the Orbital Command Hub for the Autobots, a place where the high ranking troops can hide away and plan their endless war while soldiers file in and out dancing to the same tune as they always have.

It was risky, making a base on the same turf as the Decepticon headquarters. She was a wanted fugitive by both Autobots and Decepticons, and Prime and Megatron had personal reasons to tear her apart for what she did during the Uprising. It was more of a thrill ride than any practical reason she settled down on this planet-playing both armies right under their noses. She had a good laugh screwing around with those entitled brats.

"Ember."

The black and golden form of Kopesh walked up to her, the orange light of the magma reflecting off his seemingly always spotless armor and his black jackal head sleek and angular like a finely crafted weapon.

"Kopesh, welcome back." Ember greeted her long time subordinate. "How was Nijita?"

"Uneventful, at least until I ran into an infiltration team. I took care of some of them, but I had to run when they sent the Seekers after me. Didn't want a repeat of Deadscream's little rampage." Kopesh said. "However, I also found one of those…beings hibernating in the Zamojin's countrysides. They worship them as gods."

"Excellent, then we're on the right track." She smiled. "And I too found something interesting."

She snapped her fingers and brought up a massive holo-display of a blue and green planet. "You remember what I told you about Shockwave's Regenesis plan, yes?"

"His attempt at seeding planets with ore to grow energon within their ecosystems?"

"Yes, his answer to our energon crisis. Apparently his experiments bore fruit," Ember said. "The planets he targeted actually began growing energon…among other things."

"He succeeded?" Kopesh snorted. "And yet he never informed Megatron?"

"Shockwave is surprisingly short-sighted for a mech who worships logic on his hands and knees." She chuckled. "He thinks his lack of emotions strengthens him, but in fact, it hinders him. It makes him one-dimensional and predictable. But enough of that nonsense." She pointed to the planet between them. "This planet has been a hotbed of activity since Prime and Megatron began their pocket war on it. One of Shockwave's ores was sent here and energon is sprouting all over the planet. But here's the juicy bit."

Ember informed him of what she learned and Kopesh's eyes went wide. "Impossible…you mean there were dolems sleeping on that planet all this time?"

"Yes, and they've been very busy behind the scenes. Prime and Megatron just had some major confrontations with them in the past solar cycle. It's upsetting that planet's balance of power." Ember said. "But on another note, that energon growing from the planet has also suffered from some…unexpected alterations. I've sent a team to locate and retrieve the ore Shockwave planted there"

"Who?" Kopesh asked.

Ember's red lips turned up in her signature smile that showed her glee. "Who else? Bludgeon."

XXXXXX

The Hypnos was not like other Decepticon ships. While a common theme with Decepticon warships was to inspire fear and dread, the Hypnos was quite the opposite. It didn't want to draw attention to itself, it sought to instill a macabre sense of hopelessness and depression. It lacked the usual pointed spikes and dark purple color scheme, instead it sported a smooth, curved design that would make a human surrealist artist lose his mind. This ship wasn't designed for combat, but for stealth. In fact, to a human, this ship almost resembled a metallic heart.

Bludgeon had no qualms about his ship's deisgn. Both its design and name, Hypnos, was born from his dreams. The name from the language of the race native to the planet he was orbiting. It was a reference to his beautiful nightshades and horrific daydreams, images sent to him by the true gods. As the Hypnos hung high within Terra's orbit, Bludgeon took the time to study this world that had garnered such attention from his people.

Energon growing on alien worlds. Such information would've been useful to the Decepticons, who were forced to make their own energon from artificial power sources or ration what they had on the field. It wasn't surprising to know that Shockwave would keep this a secret from everyone, that one eyed freak would keep the cure to the Rust Virus to himself until he was sure it was the real thing, no matter how many people died. To Shockwave, logic dictated that he treat friend and foe as intellectual inferiors that cannot possibly fathom his grand schemes. That everyone was beneath him, just a bunch of savages who only knew how to pull a trigger. That line of thinking is exactly what brought the downfall of their beloved Cybertron.

'Ore-13,' Bludgeon thought, thinking back to the files he read on the way to this star system. 'Power incarnate.'

"Bludgeon, the ship's already detected a few abnormal energon deposits in multiple areas of the planet." Skull-Grin announced. "How should we proceed?"

"Land near the largest concentration you can find and we'll work our way up from there." Bludgeon said. "If anyone, human or cybertronian sees us, kill them."

"Yes, master."

Bludgeon looked out the window at the blue planet and grinned. Soon Cybertron will be reborn from the blood of the heathens who caused her death. And everyone will pay for the sins they've committed against their species.

XXXXXX

 **Mytharc, Cybertron. Six million years ago.**

 _Explosions ripped across the haggard settlements of the region known as the Dead End. Soundwave ran through the barrage of laser blasts and missiles being fired at him as he ducked and jumped over pieces of debris and running through derelict buildings. He was slammed into a wall when an old fuel tank next to him was hit by a laser bolt and exploded, singing his right arm._

" _Get up!" Ravage yelled at him. Like him, Ravage was covered in burns and cuts from running from their pursuers. "If that bastard catches us now, it's all over!"_

 _Soundwave nodded and got to his feet, retrieving his plasma rifle as he followed Ravage through the tunnel made of metal plates that used to be an actual roadside stall. Above them, Laserbeak and Buzzsaw were shooting at the two dozen mechs that were chasing them. Though they managed to hit a few of them, none of the mechs screamed in agonizing pain as they were blown apart-they were all laughing madly like a group of asylum patients. What made the sight even more disturbing was that the group chasing them was composed of the same person._

" _You can't run from us!" They hollered, firing their guns into the air haphazardly. "No one says no to us and lives to tell the tale!"_

 _His name was Mitosis, and he was an agent of the Functionist Council and an outlier who could make clones of himself. Soundwave ran into the mech on the streets and Mitosis tried to recruit him for his "special" abilities, even going as far as blackmail to get him to join up. But Soundwave caught wind of his thoughts and his plans and it led to a skirmish that ended in Mitosis chasing him down with an army of clones that wouldn't let up._

" _How many times to we have to shoot this guy?" Buzzsaw cawed._

" _Until we get the real one! He'll keep generating more clones otherwise!" Laserbeak said._

 _Soundwave took out one of his last grenades and threw it at the group. The explosion killed four clones and gave the fleeing pair enough time to gain some more distance between them and the assassin, sliding down a steep slope and taking refuge in a rundown church dedicated to Adaptus. Laserbeak and Buzzsaw landed on two statues outside and continued shooting at the approaching clones, who were in turn unleashing everything they had on the church. Missiles, lasers, bombs, anything they had on hand, which was a lot. Apparently, Mitosis was one of those people who liked to be prepared for a combat mission._

" _This is insane." Ravage growled. "We won't last long under an assault like this."_

 _Soundwave tried to shoot back, but was greeted with a series of plasma bursts that blew sparks into his fae and made him stumble away from the window. Seeing how futile it was to fight back at this point, Soundwave turned to his companions._

" _Ravage, Laserbeak, Buzzsaw, retreat from this area. Get as far away from here as you can before they advance."_

" _I thought you regained your sanity after mastering your powers." Laserbeak sneered, honestly insulted that Soundwave would tell them to flee. "We're not going anywhere."_

" _It would be counterproductive at this point considering we've been with you for this long." Ravage said. "Now put that big brain of yours to work on finding yourself a way out of here…"_

 _Ravage trailed off as he caught a scent in the air and sniffed it. He ran over to the window and peeked outside, puzzling his companions._

" _What's wrong?" Soundwave asked._

" _I smell someone else. The scent is…hard to describe." Ravage said with narrowed eyes._

 _Outside the church, the one-mech army slowly closed in on the building, still firing their weapons. Mitosis was preparing to storm the building and apprehend the rogue outlier. He was fantasizing how Steelheart was going to reward him for catching such a powerful mech. Maybe he'd even score a date with Refractionary if he was luck! But suddenly his fantasy was cut short by a wave of pain surging through his head._

" _Ow! What the frag?" He grunted. His mind got quick flashes of two of his clones that were taken out at the same time. All he could tell was a flash of steel before their heads were severed. Seconds later he felt more clones begin to fall and Mitosis knew that he was under attack. "Scrap!"_

 _Hidden in the balcony higher inside the church, Laserbeak and Buzzsaw spotted a shadow running across the courtyard, cutting down Mitosis clones along the way. The original Mitosis as panicking, shooting his photon rifle at every shadow he thought was moving. In just two minutes, he was all alone in the courtyard, his clones decimated and himself completely unprotected._

" _W-Where are you? Come out and fight me properly, you coward!" Mitosis yelled, eyes scanning the yard nervously. He could create more clones, but they'll just be cut down again before he could even hand them their weapons._

" _Coward?" A low voice laughed. "Who are you to call me a coward, when you can't even face a single mech face to face?"_

" _At least I'm not hiding like a coward!" Mitosis weakly shot back. "So come at me and fi-"_

 _A blade stabbed into the back of his head and emerged from his mouth before slicing upward, cutting his skull in two. The outlier's body fell to the ground, revealing his killer to a tall, heavily armor mech with dark green armor and tank treads on his back with a large cannon folded up on his left arm. He looked like he neglected personal maintenance one too many times, as his armor was slightly faded and a bit rusty, while a few parts of his inner circuitry were exposed. Even his mouth was missing its lower jaw! When his blazing orange eyes, uncovered by optic lens, fell onto Soundwave, the blue mech pointed his plasma rifle in his direction._

" _Be at ease, stranger. I am your ally." He stabbed his sword into the ground and raised his arms to show that he was harmless. "I mean you no harm."_

" _Why did you help me?" Soundwave asked._

" _Do I need a reason? You were in trouble, and I was willing to help you. And in the nick of time, I might add." The stranger cocked his head curiously. "May I have your name?"_

" _Soundwave." He said, ignoring Ravage's whispers to stop. "What is yours?"_

" _Bludgeon."_

XXXXXX

Soundwave awoke from his slumber slower than usual. Another dream, another memory. He rarely felt emotions these days, or rather he didn't feel emotions as strongly as he should, thanks to the unpredictable nature of his powers; hearing so powerful that he could hear the thoughts of others. It had been a long time since his powers assaulted him to the point of insanity. Since then, with Ravage's help he had gained enough control over his powers to avoid the onslaught of sounds, sights and smells, just as he was taught. He never wanted to go through that again, and never thought he would.

But now he was dreaming of a life he long since abandoned. Dreams pertaining to someone he thought was long since dead at this point. Soundwave didn't know why he was thinking about that psychopath right now, but he didn't like it.

Later that morning, Soundwave was called to Nightshade's office, where she briefed him on a mission she had in mind.

"Early this morning, our orbital probe picked up a stealth ship heading into Terra's orbit. It had no faction symbol and we were unable to contact it. Whether that was by design or they just didn't want to talk to us is the question." Nightshade sighed and rubbed her forehead.

"Do you think they are some special ops team?" Soundwave asked.

"If they're special ops, they still have to report to me. I'm a part of Decepticon fragging high command!" She growled. "No, these people are on their own mission and they don't us finding out about it. As if we don't have enough rogues on this rock, I have to deal with a whole independent faction now."

"Do you want me to investigate?"

"Yes, you'll be assigned a team-"

"Negative." Soundwave cut her off. "We are at a disadvantage with Megatron in stasis and two of our own dead. A battle between us and them will only result in more casualties we can't afford right now. I suggest sending just one agent to keep an eye on them."

Nightshade narrowed her eyes. "Who?"

Soundwave stared right into her eyes and said, "Me."

XXXXXX

" _Do you believe in gods, Soundwave?"_

 _The question caught Soundwave off guard as he was studying his new environment. They were in a large temple near the outskirts of Straxus, built atop a cliff overlooking an abandoned town completely devoid of life. Bludgeon's property extended across the entire town and the copper fields beyond that. Not that it mattered since there was no one who contested his claim._

 _Ravage, Laserbeak and Buzzsaw were exploring the rest of the temple while Soundwave and Bludgeon talked. The mysterious mech took Soundwave to a room with hand crafted statues of the Guiding Hand sitting in a circle around a stylized mural on the floor-a runic eye encased in a golden pyramid that stared right back at you._

" _Gods, Soundwave. Do you worship them?" Bludgeon waved a scarred hand at the statues. "Who do you place your faith in? Epistemus, Solomus, Mortilus? Or maybe you pray to Logos of the First Church? I won't judge, he's an underrated deity anyway."_

" _I bow to no gods." Soundwave said after a lengthy silence. "I have no need of wasting moments of my life bowing to mythical beings who do not have any impact on my life."_

" _Of course, my apologies." Bludgeon nodded. "Sometimes I forget that not everyone is as wordly as I am in religious matters."_

 _Soundwave looked up at the statues. "What about you? Who do you worship?"_

" _Many gods. Those that you see here, some others that exist in name only, even the Thirteen Primes." Bludgeon said cryptically. "It's hard to choose, as I worship many, but I'm not truly dedicated to any of them."_

 _When Soundwave looked confused, he elaborated. "The reason I worship so many gods is to see if one of them is the being that sends me my visions. I have vivid dreams that haunt me day and night; they speak of the past, of the present and of the future. Sometimes I can barely remember them, and sometimes they remain burned into my brain module. They come at me with such intensity that I thought I would go insane. You know what that feels like, don't you?"_

 _Soundwave didn't reply to that, but he felt that he didn't need to. When his powers first awakened, the onslaught of sensations they brought onto him nearly dove him insane. It was a waking nightmare that almost drove him to kill himself. He never wanted to go through that again._

" _It was because of these visions that I found you, Soundwave." Bludgeon continued. "I saw your face among others and I knew you were something special. An aimless mech searching for a purpose in life. Something to fight for."_

" _Something…to fight for?" Soundwave said confused._

" _Yes, a cause that gives your existence meaning. Life is not worth living unless you have something to strive for. A cause, a goal, a person you care deeply for. Something that can give you the chance to use your abilities to their fullest." Bludgeon's glowing eyes stared into Soundwave's red visor. "Do you have something like that, Soundwave? A goal to strive towards?"_

"… _No, I do not." He answered. Before he manifested his powers, he was just an ordinary communications officer in Kaon. Between then and now, all he was focused on was living to see the next sunrise with his animal companions. "Do you?"_

" _In a sense. I am intent on learning the true meaning behind my visions. Are they a divine message or just disturbing hallucinations caused by some malfunction? I must know the answer." Bludgeon clenched his fists. "If you are aimless in life, Soundwave, then allow me to help you on your life's journey. Together we can find meaning in our lives."_

 _Bludgeon held his hand out to Soundwave, who stared at it before shaking it. Bludgeon's hand felt rough and scratched to the touch._

" _Together." Said Soundwave._

XXXXXX

Soundwave only took Ravage and Laserbeak with him on the mission. Buzzsaw stayed behind to act as Soundwave's connection to the rest of the team in case anything happened to him. Rumble and Frenzy were to stay behind, as they were nowhere near qualified for an intelligence gathering mission like this one. They were too noisy and uncontrollable, and Soundwave wanted to avoid combat as much as possible.

Their satellites were able to track the spacecraft to the middle of Texas, near an exploratory dig. After taking a ground bridge to the dig site, Soundwave went undercover and spent the next five days watching the humans toil about in the dirt like the animals they are, with Laserbeak and Ravage hiding away elsewhere. It was almost torture in itself watching these creatures toil strut about like they were the most important people in the galaxy while privately bemoaning their lives.

Soundwave resisted the urge to put them out of their misery. It was tempting to just transform and annihilate them all, given them the release they pray for every waking moment of their lives. He stopped that line of thought immediately. Why was he thinking such sadistic thoughts? He was probably on edge, and it was starting to show. Humans never annoyed him to the point of committing senseless massacre.

Of the humans there, his attention was focused on two men in particular-or what looked like men. They looked unassuming, one man was bad and the other sported a thick beard. Soundwave could tell from their incoherent, one track minds that they were not humans but facsimiles; clones created from living templates to act as agents amongst the native populace, causing dissent to further the agenda of their Decepticon masters. These facsimiles, who had no minds of their own and no brainwaves for Soundwave to scan properly, replaced their originals six days ago, a day before Soundwave arrived.

During that time, Soundwave monitored every conversation they had, watched their every move. Since they arrived, they maintained a steady flow of information back to their master. All of which centered around a mysterious ore sample extracted from this dig.

"Our findings have been crosschecked and verified." One the facsimiles said in hushed tones.

"And?" The other asked.

"It's Ore-13. We're to make out way to the rendezvous point at dusk."

"Are we being recalled?"

"No, we're," He paused to wave at a passing coworker. "We're to be briefed on the next-and final-phase of the operation. There's some…ordnance involved."

That's all he needed to hear.

XXXXXX

 _Bludgeon had two surbordinates, Slice and Dice. They were twin sisters Bludgeon raised from their proto-stage after finding the hot spot they were forged in. Slice, the elder sister, was steel gray with sharp spikes along her body and touch reinforced tires on her back and legs. Dice, the younger sister, was a dark red two wheeler who had a barbed grill over her mouth that made her look like she was always grinning. Both sisters had dark red eyes, a deep crimson so dark that you couldn't even see your reflection in them. Bludgeon was tickled by their rather unsettling appearance, believing that whatever god had birthed granted him his visions also had the same dark humor in creating these sisters._

 _The sisters were trained by Bludgeon, and thus were skilled fighters. Soundwave also trained under Bludgeon, taught in the most basic martial art forms, mainly Metallikao and Diffusion techniques. When he felt Soundwave had the technique memorized, he would pit him against the sisters to see if he truly had it down, and it almost always led to Soundwave feeling more hurt than when he started practice. This was the training that Soundwave undergone for nearly six months now, and it was a harrowing experience. Each session would leave him lying on the floor bleeding, with Ravage pulling him towards the medical chamber to get repaired and rest up, only to continue the process the next day._

 _Ravage expressed his displeasure at seeing Soundwave torture himself with this and would repeatedly ask him why was he doing all this? What was the point? Soundwave didn't have a concrete answer, which was an answer in itself._

 _Today's session was one of his better ones. Slice and Dice would weave around him to attack from both sides, catch him off guard while he was trying to defend from two directions at once. Soundwave, armed with only a katana, would keep his distance; Slice was armed with a chained sickle and Dice was armed with a pair of attachable three bladed claws that could tear through Cybertronian armor with ease. Dice flipped over his head and slashed at his back, but he deflected the blade from his body, following up with a kick to her face and slashing at her chest. She back pedaled just in time for the tip of his sword to scratch her chest plate._

 _As his sword hit the ground, he left himself open momentarily. Slice threw her sickle at him and he ducked under it, but as the curved blade stuck itself into the wall, Slice pulled herself forward and landed a kick in the middle of his face. He hit the ground hard and earned a deep gash in the arm from Dice for his actions, but he was able to grab her arm and direct her next attack at her sister. Dice's claws cut into Slice's dominant hand, making her drop the chain, and disarm her. Soundwave then threw Dice into the ground and pointed his sword tip at Dice's head just as Slice swung her sickle towards his red visor._

" _Enough."_

 _They all froze, then got off each other to face Bludgeon directly. The scarred mech was watching the match from the shadows, his eyes glowing dangerously in the dark as he walked towards his three disciples._

" _I'm impressed Soundwave. You've done better this time, just like yesterday." He said._

 _As usual, Soundwave remained silent to Bludgeon's praise._

" _Instead of trying to match their skill, you used their techniques against each other. Redirection and submission, the two key points of Diffusion. You're learning from your mistakes."_

 _Bludgeon patted him on the back and walked back into the inner sanctum of the temple, leaving Soundwave alone with the sisters. Slice and Dice gave him hateful glares as they roughly pushed past him and followed their master. Once they were gone, Ravage padded across the room to sit at Soundwave's side._

" _I don't get why you hang out with him. He's unstable Soundwave, do you know that?" He said._

" _I do." Soundwave said curtly._

" _So why are we still hanging out with these people? Those two femmes are one witty remark away from killing all of us in our sleep."_

" _I…" Soundwave trailed off and Ravage shook his head with an annoyed sigh._

" _You're still hung up on finding that "goal" he keeps talking about? Soundwave, that's all just a lure to draw in a wayward outlier like you into his clutches." Ravage scowled and laid his head on his paws. "This place, it reeks of energon. I feel like I'm sitting in a morgue. And Bludgeon smells like death. He's killed before, a lot of people died at his hands."_

 _Soundwave still said nothing._

" _You know it too. I can see it in how you tense up whenever he gets near you. If he worries you that much, then why don't you just glimpse into his mind? See what's going on in that half dead noggin of his." The feline Minicon suggested._

 _Soundwave looked down at his companion, then stared out the stained glass window into the empty town that lay below the temple. Ravage thought he was being blown off, but seeing the faint twitches in Soundwave's facial expression told him something else. He was uncomfortable with what he was about to say. Ravage was about to tell his friend that he didn't have to answer, but Soundwave did anyway._

" _It is because I am afraid of what I will see."_

XXXXXX

 _Later that night, Ravage was walking through the empty halls of the temple, his footsteps as quiet as a passing breeze. It was a late night stroll that he took because he couldn't shut himself down. No matter where he went, he always felt like something was watching him from some unknown corner, eluding his acute senses._

' _I hate this place. It's a death trap waiting to be sprung.' Ravage thought. 'Soundwave may be ignoring the danger we're in, but I'm not. Bludgeon is a psycho and I'm going to find out what his game is.'_

 _As he passed by the god statues, Ravage nearly leapt a foot into the air when he heard a horrific scream coming from one of the prayer rooms._

" _ **KKRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!**_ _"_

 _Ravage quickly hit behind a column as Slice and Dice ran down the hall and into the prayer room, shutting the door behind them. He sneaked across the room and pressed his face against the crack in the door, seeing Bludgeon thrash around on the ground in the arms of Slice._

" _Master, what's wrong?" She asked. "Please, talk to us!"_

" _The voices…I heard them again!" Bludgeon said, sounding terrified but reverent at the same time. The wavering tone in his usually calm voice unsettled Ravage deeply. "They spoke to me…whispered to my mind. Soundwave…they spoke of him as well!"_

" _What about that curr?" Dice spat in distaste. "We should just kill him and his pets-"_

" _YOU WILL NOT TOUCH HIM!" Bludgeon roared, jumping up and slamming Dice into the wall. "The Voices speak of him, so he must have the answers I seek! He must not be harmed! If either of you touch him, heaven help you when I get my hands on you!"_

" _Y-yes master!" Dice whimpered. He was never this angry with her, and it made her hatred of Soundwave grow even more._

 _Bludgeon let her go and stumbled back onto his knees, scratching his blunt fingertips against his torn up crest and cranium. "The Voices speak of his destiny. They speak of who he will become. I must keep him, for he will lead us to the source of these Voices. If he can hear them, then can speak to them. And only then can we ascend to Paradise."_

 _Ravage silently slinked away from the door and ran back to Soundwave's room. 'Bludgeon is insane. Everyone in this hellhole is insane!'_

XXXXXX

Dusk came and the workers returned to their trailers for a good night's sleep…all save the two facsimiles, Graham and Fleming. Soundwave had Ravage follow them from the shadows as they took a jeep and drove away from the dig site to their designated rendezvous point. Their drive took them a few miles, far from any form of habitation and deeper into the arid desert. Ravage followed them into a canyon, where they abandoned their vehicle and walked another few miles to board a human-sized cybertronian aircraft.

" _Laserbeak, they're on the move. Follow them!"_ Ravage said through their comm. Laserbeak, who was watching them from above, flew after the ship, remaining back a fair distance so they didn't detect him.

He followed the aircraft over a great distance, leaving the desert behind to fly over the beginnings of a forest. Laserbeak saw the aircraft fly toward a dormant volcano, flying low to the ground and vanishing through a holomatter screen masking a secret entrance at the base of the volcano. Laserbeak knew that going in through the front door would get him blasted apart, so he hopped onto a boulder and used his laser cannons to carve his own opening into the mountain.

It took some time, but he was able to burn his way through the thick layer of stone and volcanic rock to reach the volcano's interior. Instead of a natural caldera, he was staring into a large cavern that was outfitted with cybertronian tech. it was a secret base!

'This must have been here a long time!' Laserbeak thought. Hopping out of the hole, he flew through the tunnels, recording everything he saw. There was energon stores, radar and scanning equipment, mining vehicles, even hover crates full of some purple crystals that looked like energon that were dug up from the bowels of the earth.

He located the facsimiles, who were in the base's cargo bay conversing with their masters. Remaining hidden in the shadows, Laserbeak landed atop a computer monitor and enhanced his audio sensors to hear what they were saying. The two clones were talking to three mechs. He didn't recognize the other two but he certainly recognized the ghoulish face that still haunted him and his companions-Bludgeon.

"Fleming, Markham, your work is almost done." Bludgeon said. "One more task remains, after which we shall return to the stars, and you two shall return to the oblivion from where you came."

"We understand." Fleming said blankly.

Bludgeon leaned down and handed the facsimiles two bombs. "These plasma density charges have been adapted to your use. Our scans have revealed a pocket of thermal gas close to the main survey shaft. Position them accordingly. The blast will shatter a wide area of the mantle and force an evacuation of the site and the surrounding area." Then Bludgeon's eyes lit up in anticipation. "At which point we will move in and remove enough of the Regenesis ore to suit our purposes."

XXXXXX

When Soundwave was updated by Laserbeak on the situation, he knew he had to act fast.

Bludgeon of all places was on Terra conducting secret operations for some unknown party. There were here for something, and it seemed that energon was only a secondary concern. Whatever it was, it must have been powerful enough for him to risk conflict with the two warring factions on the planet. But who was funding this little project of theirs? Someone was working from the shadows to direct Bludgeon on this excursion and this didn't sit well with Soundwave.

Ironic that Soundwave would run into Bludgeon like this after having those flashes of memories of him for the past few days. He wondered if he was actually picking up Bludgeon's thoughts. That mech's mind was part raging inferno and part typhoon. It made him uncontrollable and unpredictable, and that made this mission very complicated. Bludgeon knew how Soundwave worked and he was a dangerous fighter on top of it. Soundwave hadn't made contact with Bludgeon since they parted ways long before Megatron's sermons left the energon mines. He had to find out what Bludgeon was doing on Terra, but he also needed to avoid sparking an open confrontation with him.

Nightshade's face flashed through his mind. He couldn't let her get involved with this. Bludgeon was his demon to face.

And so he mobilized. Early the next morning, before the sun even started to rise, Soundwave's "owner" Hiro left his trailer half asleep to hit the showers before everyone else, with the Decepticon's alt mode in his hand. As he walked from his trailer, he saw a large shadow block out the moonlight behind him and he spun around to see a giant metal bird descending on him.

Laserbeak swooped down on the human, claws outstretched. He angled his body to snatch Soundwave from the man's hand, his talons tearing a hole in the man's shirt. He wasn't afraid to be seen like this, not like anyone would believe Hiro if he just spouted out that a giant robot bird stole his cassette player.

As they flew over the dig site, Soundwave heard a resounding boom travel through the ground-the plasma density charges were detonating, and the humans down below were the first to witness their destructive power as the entire dig site exploded, geysers of flame bursting from the ground and rock breaking apart from intense vibrations that tore apart the land. Some of the workers weren't so lucky and either fell into the crevices or were incinerated by the intense flames.

Bludgeon's plan was reaching its endgame…and so was Soundwave's.

XXXXXX

" _Have you ever put any thought into why you have your powers, Soundwave?"_

 _Soundwave glanced at Bludgeon as he walked out onto the balcony overlooking the desolate area. Ever since Ravage told him about what he saw, Soundwave was more wary of the master, who seemed to follow Soundwave around everywhere he went. It was starting to put him on edge, and the mad look in Bludgeon's eyes didn't help matters._

" _I do not know. I simply considered it a quirk of my design. That is how Outliers are born, just like point one percenters." Soundwave said._

" _That's a weak explanation made by people who seek to hinder or abuse your gifts. Those powers of yours, the power that all outliers are born with, are gifts from the Primal Source." Bludgeon said resolutely. "They are divine in nature, and thus they were given to you for a reason."_

" _I did not ask for this gift."_

" _One generally does not ask for a gift, Soundwave. They are given out of generosity."_

 _Soundwave shook his head and walked past Bludgeon, only to have his arm grabbed in a vice grip. "Let go."_

" _You can hear it now, can't you?" Bludgeon growled. "The voices. Now that we are close now, surely you can hear them speak to me."_

" _I do not hear any voices." Soundwave said, trying to pull his arm free._

 _Bludgeon hissed and pulled Soundwave back to stare him in the face. "Do not mock me! Don't you dare mock me! I know you've heard them speaking in whispers. Their voices fill these halls like gusts of wind. Why do you think I've kept them so empty all these years? They've led me to you, and you must have some connection to them! Why else were you gifted with your enhanced senses?"_

" _Let go of me!" Soundwave growled._

" _NO! I will not lose my only chance at learning what they're trying to tell me!" Bludgeon was hysterical at this point. "You've been here for nearly a year, you must know what they say! They've become louder since I brought you in, and I will not lose them again! TELL ME WHAT THEY ARE SAYING TO ME!"_

" _LET GO!"_

 _In a fit of anger, Soundwave punched Bludgeon in the face and pulled his arm free. When he moved to grab Bludgeon's head, he momentarily lost control of his powers in his anger and as he made contact with Bludgeon he was assaulted by a flurry of images._

 _He saw images of a beautiful world torn asunder by a violent war. Vast cities of large bipedal beings made of stone and other minerals warring with each other. He saw that same planet slowly die, its ecosystem dying, unable to sustain itself anymore. Its people leaving, spreading across the far edges of the galaxy, but never moving inward towards the galaxy's inner spiral arms. Soundwave heard voices, that familiar and dreaded sensation of hearing a thousand voices speak at once. They were whispers he could barely discern, but after a few seconds they all began singing in tandem. It was maddening, their voices came from everywhere, attacking him from every angle._

 _Eventually, Soundwave managed to push Bludgeon away and ran back into the temple._

" _I knew it! You can hear them too!" He heard Bludgeon yell at him. "I was right all along! I WAS RIGHT!"_

XXXXXX

 _Thunder boomed across the sky as a heavy rain fell across the land. Soundwave ran through the old town as fast as he could, his thoughts jumbled and a mess as he tried to get as far from that temple as he could._

 _The thoughts he gleaned from Bludgeon's mind were nothing he had seen before in his life. They were maddening, grotesque, horrific. Bludgeon had done more than just kill in his pursuit of answers, he mutilated, devoured, cannibalized. He lost all sense of morality and sanity because of that harmonic chaos he called Voices. How was he able to live with that for his entire life and not want to kill himself? The lengths he was willing to go in order to find the source of these whispers was too much for Soundwave and he did the first thing he thought of-collect his Minicons and run._

 _As he sprinted through the street, his acute audio receptors picked up the sound of footsteps hitting the wet ground behind him. Bludgeon wasn't going to let him go it seemed. That was fine, Soundwave was willing to fight to get back his freedom._

 _He turned a corner and ducked as Dice lunged at him in a surprise attack. He took out his concussion rifle and fired a blast into her back, but a sickle sliced through his gun. Slice fell on him, slamming him to the ground, but he managed to get on his back and opened his chest plate, deploying Laserbeak and Buzzsaw, who swarmed Slice with a wall of laser bolts to her face and chest. Soundwave flipped to his feet and kicked Dice's arm down as she came at him again. They traded fierce blows in the middle of the rain soaked street. Dice's claws left some shallow cuts on his arms and chest, but Soundwave was able to extend a vibro-blade from his arm and land a stab wound in her lower abdomen._

" _How dare you spurn Master Bludgeon's hospitality!" Dice snarled. "You were going to be our guide to Paradise. You were going to help us all ascend!"_

" _That is not the path I want. I chose what I want to do with my life." Soundwave replied._

 _Dice cursed him and sprinted at him, claws extended. Soundwave leapt back and shifted his left hand into a radio dish, firing an intense sonic wave at her that made her stumble as her audio sensors were overloaded by the high pitch frequency. Soundwave used her falter to move in close. She lashed out with a swipe of her claws, and she managed to dig her blades into his forearm, but he spun around and dug his blade into her neck, cutting through cables and wiring as he beheaded her in one swipe._

" _Die!" Slash screamed and leapt up, kicking Laserbeak aside and stabbing her sickle's blade into Buzzsaw's wing, dragging him to the ground and jumping over him._

 _She threw her chain at Soundwave, wrapping it around his other forearm and pulled. Soundwave dug his feet into the ground to keep his balance and they pulled against each other for a moment before Soundwave heard another war cry._

" _SOUNDWAVE!" Bludgeon jumped off a building and fell upon Soundwave, his sword drawn. Soundwave pulled the chain back just enough so that the sword missed his hand and cut the chain instead, freeing him. He snatched one of Bludgeon's other swords and threw it at Slice, impaling her through the chest, right through her laser core._

" _You dare run from me?!" Bludgeon howled, slashing away at Soundwave, who could barely avoid his attacks. "I gave you a purpose in life. To see out the gods that whisper to me. We are close, Soundwave, don't you see?"_

" _That is not my purpose! You merely seek to use me as a tool to fulfil your own delusions!" Soundwave yelled. He tried to disarm Bludgeon, but Bludgeon spun around his hands and cleanly severed his left arm in a single stroke._

" _I give you a home, I spare your life, and you repay me by spitting in my face? By denying your true calling?" Bludgeon kicked Soundwave in the face and moved to stab him. "Then you shall meet the same fate as those who tried to run from me as well. Your body will be a great sacrifice to Mortilus!"_

 _Before his blade could pierce Soundwave's chest, Ravage was deployed from his chest cavity. He leapt at Bludgeon and sank his teeth deep into his wrist, biting down hard enough to make Bludgeon lose his grip on his sword._

" _Filthy beast!" Bludgeon landed a palm strike on Ravage's chest and threw the Minicon into a window. He glared down at Soundwave, who was on his knees. "Get up and fight me like a warrior! I didn't teach you all those moves just to keep you occupied!"_

 _Soundwave wasn't going to play his game. In a one on one fight, he would lose hands down and he wasn't keen on dying in this dreary place. "No."_

" _Then die!"_

 _Bludgeon took one step forward and Soundwave shot up, throwing a grenade at Bludgeon's face. It detonated, and Bludgeon's vision was engulfed in flames as the explosion sent him skidding against the ground before hitting a wall head first. Once his optics fixed themselves, he searched for Soundwave, only to find him gone once the smoke cleared, along with Laserbeak and Ravage._

 _For the first time in stellar cycles, Bludgeon felt true anger and yelled to the heavens._

XXXXXX

"Keep it going, my friends. Do not leave a single crystal behind." Bludgeon said.

The operation was going smoothly. They had found a sizeable deposit of Ore-13 in the area that was more than enough for their significant demands. The purple crystals radiated a powerful aura that was intoxicating to Bludgeon.

"Shockwave has created something glorious and he hides it away from his own comrades." Bludgeon huffed and tossed a shard of the ore in his hands. "It's insulting at how arrogant he is."

After watching his team push the last of the carts into the ground bridge, Bludgeon decided to check out the rest of the cave they were vacating. All the equipped had been removed and the tech they didn't need anymore would be destroyed. He walked into a section of the cave where the facsimilies were created and the first deposit of the ore was mined. Without all the equipment, this was just one big hole in the ground.

"Even still," Bludgeon said to himself. "It's best not to leave any evidence behind."

"Indeed."

Bludgeon spun around as he saw Soundwave convert from his tiny cassette mode to his larger natural form and jumped from a ledge he was sitting on in preparation for his arrival. Bludgeon chuckled and drew his swords.

"Soundwave," He drawled, eyes narrowing. "I knew we were being watched, but by you? You have some nerve after running out on me, soldier boy."

Soundwave just stared straight at Bludgeon, not saying a word.

"Well? You're not going to say anything after all these years? No mind reading? No simple inquiries as to my purpose here?" Bludgeon asked. "Granted, I'm sure you don't want to look into my mind after what happened before. You should know that I don't intend to let you leave if you mean to tattle on me."

"Lower your weapons, Bludgeon." Soundwave said. "Though I possess enough evidence to have you all executed should I wish, I prefer to put my skills and resources at your disposal."

Bludgeon stared at him long and hard before lowering his swords. "You…wish to join us?"

"Not exactly. It would be simply in your best interests to have me onside." He said. "Both in the short and long term."

It was a risky gamble, but he had to know just what this ore-13 was, where it came from and who made it. He'll only get these answers if he can convince Bludgeon to let him join. He can have his agents warn the other Decepticon officers and have Bludgeon apprehended…or killed.

In other words, you want a cut."

Soundwave nodded. "A crude, but succinct summation."

Bludgeon stared at him for a moment before he burst out laughing. Soundwave watched him, confused as to what was so funny.

"Oh, Soundwave, how are you still such a fool after all these centuries? I thought you knew me better than that, but I guess I was wrong." Bludgeon chuckled. "You think us motivated by avarice and ambition when nothing could be farther from the truth. The Voices, I've found where they come from, Soundwave, no thanks to you. And thanks to Ember, they told me what I must do for the planet that we destroyed. With Shockwave's Ore-13, we will revive the scourge that destroyed out world-Thunderwing!"

Soundwave stepped back in shock at Bludgeon's declaration. Thunderwing, the monster from his nightmares. The beast that killed Cybertron and nearly annihilated Autobots and Decepticons alike. Soundwave had been at the frontlines of that last battle for Cybertron and knew how they had barely killed the beast, if they ever did. So many of their people, Autobots and Decepticons, died fighting it, and Bludgeon wants to revive it?

"Why are you trying to bring back the monster that destroyed our planet and sent us into exile?"

"Our war destroyed Cybertron, Soundwave. Her death is slowly causing our race to perish." Bludgeon explained. "But with Thunderwing, we have a chance to repent for our sins…by dying for the arrogance that allowed us to kill the planet in the first place."

Soundwave realized that he miscalculated-Bludgeon's plan was more twisted than he thought, and it was disturbingly just like him to think of something like this. To commit ungodly acts against nature just to satisfy his heretical urges. This brought forth an emotion that Soundwave hadn't felt in a long time-anger.

"I will stop you."

"I have no doubt that you will try." Bludgeon replied. He tossed one of his swords at Soundwave, who caught it. "But if we fight, it will be as warriors."

Soundwave glanced at the sword before getting into his stance. He knew that this will be a tough fight, mainly because Bludgeon was so much more adept at swordplay than he was, but he had to finish this now before Bludgeon as the chance to leave the planet. Thousands of Cybertronian lives were at stake. They circled each other, not taking their eyes off their opponents as they waited to see who will make the first move. A single twitch from Soundwave got the fight started.

They rushed at each and slashed their blades in a shower of sparks. Their movements were quick and precise, and each attack was followed by a defensive move and then followed by a counterattack that was also countered. They weaved around each other attempting to get at one another's blind spots, but they were skilled enough to keep those hidden as well. Then Bludgeon broke the stalemate by spinning around Soundwave's downward strike and slashing him in the chest before kicking him in the face. He charged, but Soundwave grabbed his arm and threw him over his shoulder into the ground, knocking the sword from his hands. But this didn't deter Bludgeon, it only excited him.

Bludgeon ran at Soundwave and lashed out with a series of punches and kicks that put the spymaster on the defensive. A lapse in his defense allowed Bludgeon to get in close and chop Soundwave in the neck before slamming a knee into his side. He snatched the sword from Soundwave's grip and landed a palm strike to his head, slamming him into the ground and raising his sword to stab into his chest. Soundwave raised his hand and let the blade stab through his appendage before diverting the blade to stab into the spot next to his head. Their eyes met for a second before Soundwave shattered the blade and flipped back to give himself some space.

"Very good," Bludgeon praised as Soundwave pulled the broken sword from his hand. "I knew you were special from the day I met you. But are you as skilled with your hands as you are with a sword?"

Bludgeon leapt forward and launched a punch at Soundwave. It was blocked and took the chance to land a couple of blows to Bludgeon's face and chest. Soundwave tried to palm strike Bludgeon, but the fanatical Con grabbed his wrist and twisted his hand at an awkward angle. He kept the pressure on it with one hand and brought Soundwave to his knees.

"You are a skilled warrior, Soundwave. That much is certain," Bludgeon said. "But your skills have been dulled by living with those savages you swear fealty to. Whereas my skills have only gotten stronger!"

Soundwave ignored the pain in his hand and lunged at his former master. He punched Bludgeon in the chest with such force that he was sent flying into the wall, causing rubble and dust to fly everywhere. Soundwave stood up and walked over to the hole in the wall where Bludgeon was lying. But as the smoke cleared, he saw that Bludgeon was gone.

'What?' Soundwave thought, then he felt a presence behind him. 'No!'

Soundwave spun around but was too slow to act as Bludgeon hit with a powerful punch to the chest that reverberated throughout his entire body. Dazed, Soundwave was open to the quick jabs that Bludgeon dealt to his limbs, which felt like he was getting jolted by an energon prod put on max settings. He fell to his knees in front of an unharmed Bludgeon.

"You fought a good fight, Soundwave. But in the end I am stronger." He said. "Make no mistake I only won because of our different goals. You fight for a dying warlord. I fight to cleanse the sins of our entire race."

Barely conscious, Soundwave tried to mentally call Ravage and Laserbeak to his side. He had to escape or everything was lost. But he could not hear their thoughts anymore. They were not responding. What was going on?

"Don't try calling you pets, Soundwave. It will do you no good." Bludgeon pointed to the entrance, where a reformatted Slice and Dice walked in with the broken bodies of Ravage and Laserbeak. "They're not dead. Just in stasis. A much better fate than what I have planned for you."

Fastback walked up to Bludgeon, carrying a large cannon. "Found this among Shockwave's small arsenal of experimental weaponry. I've been itching to try it out."

Bludgeon glared down at the disabled spymaster. "You would've been a trusted ally, Soundwave. But you spurned my generosity for that harlot you worship so much. And now you will die here, but rest assured, you will be remembered…as the mech who lost his life because of Megatron's lost ambitions."

Bludgeon raised his hand and landed one last strike to Soundwave's head, cracking his visor and knocking him back. Fastback fired the cannon and hit with a green energy beam. The weapon was designed as a form of transformation lock to act as a living prison within the target's own body. Bathed in green energy, Soundwave's T-Cog was overridden and he was forced into his tiny alt mode.

"Your T-Cog has now been infected with a coded virus that forces you into your alt mode." Bludgeon said, to the silent cassette player. "In your case, I'd imagine that's a considerable inconvenience. Still, you won't have much time to reflect on your predicament."

Bludgeon took out a plasma density charge and tossed it into a magma flow under a heat vent. He and his associates then walked over to the ground bridge.

"We're done here." Bludgeon said. "Let's go."

With one last look at his former protégé, Bludgeon entered the ground bridge and vanished. In Terra's orbit, the Hypnos received its cargo and crew, and upon Bludgeon's order, it initiated a quantum jump out of the Sol system.

Despite his brutal beating, Soundwave still could hear things. He heard the detonation of the plasma charges. He heard the cave beginning to crumble. He heard the loud explosions that made the volcano unstable. He even heart the ground under him break apart.

Then the last thing he heard…was the silence.

XXXXXX

 _It continued to rain over the city of Kaon. It was the like the sky had opened up and let lose an entire ocean's worth of water just for the tragedy that occurred a few hours earlier. Soundwave sat with his back against the remains of a concert hall, his arm still missing, and his two surviving Minicons, Ravage and Laserbeak still recharging on the ground next to him. He was still awake, staring up at the dark cloudy sky as rain poured on him. His body still ached, and the stump where his arm was cut off stung as the water seeped into his exposed circuitry, but he did nothing to cover it._

 _He barely escaped with his life, and he knew Bludgeon wouldn't stop hunting him down. It made Soundwave sad; he really thought he had something going for him. Something that could give his life meaning, learning about the unknown, finding out what kind of person he really was…why he was an outlier in the first place. Bludgeon was a sadistic mech who was driven mad by these visions he believed to have been sent to him by some god. He was such a fool to put his faith in him._

' _Now what do I do?' He thought stoically. He closed his eyes and sagged against the wall. 'Where do I go? I have no home, no job, no goals, nothing. All because I was born differently than the rest of the masses.'_

 _If the Functionists hadn't run him out of his home in Kaon he wouldn't be suffering like this. He wouldn't be wandering around the wastes like some vagabond. It wasn't his fault that he was like this, it was because of this god forsaken social system that catered to those who were born lucky. The thought alone filled Soundwave with anger, but that died out quickly as he remembered the reality of his situation. What could he, a single mech in a world of millions, do against something that has been in place for thousands of stellar cycles? One bot wasn't strong enough to fight the system and its government. Not even a Prime._

 _He was so engrossed in his thoughts that he didn't notice someone approach him until their shadow fell over him. He ignored the busy body and continued to star at his lap._

" _Are you alright?"_

 _Soundwave looked up at the speaker and froze. It was a femme, black with white on her forearms and thighs, with a bird's head on her chest and black wings witting on her back. Her face was slender and white, with dark purple eyes and lips that contrasted her pale complexion._

" _You don't look so good." She said, frowning at his wounds. "And neither do your friends. Would you like me to help you?"_

 _Soundwave studied her for a moment before nodding. She smiled softly and held out her hand. "What's your name? I'm Nightshade."_

 _Soundwave slowly took her hand in his and took the first step into his new life. He idly thought that maybe she was the answer to his question. That person he should be fighting for. "Soundwave."_


	15. Stormbringer part 1

Chapter 15-Stormbringer part 1

' _Even now, the memory is seared into my subconscious. It emerges, swathed in flame and dripping white phosphorus, in those rare, reflective moments when m mental defenses are down. Time and time again I am dragged back at the very heart of the raging, howling storm that we brought down upon ourselves, and though the front has long past…its calamitous echoes linger still.'_

XXXXXX

Cybertron-once a glittering jewel in the cosmos, a world unlike any other that spawned a wondrous race of evolutionary marvels, the cybertronians. But now it was a barren, lifeless world, killed by the very species it gave birth to. Much of its once great cities lie in ruin, destroyed by centuries of violent warfare but the damage was only made worse by the solar flares and particle storms that would ravage the planet's surface.

Jetfire felt like crying whenever he looked down at the planet. To think that they were considered to be one of the most prosperous races in the galaxy, but now all they knew how to was waste time, energy and resources trying to find new ways to kill each other. Don't get it wrong, he didn't regret becoming an Autobot, but it was depressing to think that no matter who won this war, they'll still be left with a dead planet and a dying race.

Ever since the war spread to the outer reaches of space, Optimus would send scientific rely teams to orbit Cybertron every few cycles to monitor the planet's condition for any changes. Perhaps it was out of some personal sense of guilt or he was just holding out hope for a miracle, but Optimus wasn't going to let his planet fade into his memory like a bad dream. Jetfire obviously wasn't expecting much from a planet that was ecologically dead for four million stellar cycles. So it was twice of much of a surprise when one of his teammates gave him some unexpected news.

"You've got what?"

"An energy trace, Jetfire." Nosecone said. "Fifty-two kliks beneath the planet's surface."

"I don't meant to question your diligent attention to detail, Nosecone, but are you sure?" He asked again. "There's been no energy reading of any sort on Cybertron for the past millennia."

"I know, that's why, before I offered my findings, I triple-checked everything and ran a lexetsix diagnostic on the sensor cluster itself." Nosecone said. "And I still have an energy trace."

Jetfire bit his lip. "Transfer the datastream to the auditorium and gather the others. This beats closer investigation."

Jetfire and Nosecone gathered the rest of the Technobots in the ship's lab. Nosecone brought up a large holo-display of the planet's geographical data and pointed to the red zones on the image.

"As you can see, we have a large number of recognizable elements and a few rogue constituents, currently unclassified." Nosecone said, pointing to the red zones.

"Looks familiar." Said Afterburner.

"It should, its energon, only more so." Nosecone said. "I can only conjecture that a pocket remained undetected and, over time, became contaminated with elemental material from some far-flung corner of the galaxy."

The other Technobots looked a bit puzzled by this information, but Jetfire understood. Energon was already in short supply when the war began, but the continuous strain the war had on the planet's resources worsened situation. When Cybertron turned dark, Decepticon raiders plundered nearby colonies and it wasn't long before the Hadeen System was rendered void of energon entirely. But that didn't mean there weren't some extremely small deposits located deep within that planet that were relatively untouched. That was probably the source of this discovery.

"How is that possible?" Scattershot asked.

"With the degradation of Cybertron's atmosphere, the incidence of direct impacts from comets and other space debris has intensified." He continued. "It's possible this hybrid is the reaction."

It seemed like a far-fetched, but energon has been proven to be an extremely malleable to foreign elements. Red energon, Tox-En, why should this potential hybrid be any different?

"If that's true, then it supports my theory that Cybertron is gradually-albeit on a cosmic time scale-healing itself. Undoing what was done." Jetfire said. Take that Brainstorm!

"S-So what do we do about it?" Strafe asked. Jetfire smirked at the nervous mech.

"I think," He said. "We should go take a look."

Strafe didn't bother to hold back his groan of dismay. This wasn't going to end well.

XXXXXX

Jetfire looked out at the ravaged landscape as the Calabi-Yau touched down on Cybertron. No one had stepped foot on the planet since the Fall four million years ago, aside from the Valkyries, Arcee and that human girl. Just looking at the state the planet was in from space left many cybertronians with a bad taste in their mouths. There was also the fact that what Jetfire and the Techonobots were doing could get them into a lot of trouble. They were breaking some seriously high level restrictions by landing on the planet without proper clearance, as Strafe informed them for the fifth time.

"If you want to stay on the ship, Strafe, no one will blame you." Jetfire told the Techonobot.

The nervous red mech shook his head, warily glancing at the stormy sky. "Oh, n-no, the chance to actually step foot on Cybertron again…it's, uh, l-like c-coming home."

For a mech who was a borderline nervous wreck in the face of danger and adversity, Strafe was doing a good job keeping himself together, Jetfire had to give him that.

Afterburner announced they were landing and the rest of the team braced themselves as the ship landed roughly on the uneven terrain of Cybertron. Jetfire wasn't ready for the bumpy than usual landing and almost fell face first on the hard metal floor, though he was kept steady by Nosecone. Jetfire glared at the pilot, who hardly looked concerned.

"Sorry." Afterburner said.

Once the ship was properly situated, the landing hatch slid open and Jetfire exited onto solid ground with Strafe, Scattershot and Lightspeed in tow. As soon as they left the safety of their ship, they all immediately felt how cold and dangerous the planet felt just by standing in place.

"Cosmic radiation levels are off the scale, and we have a charged particle storm closing in from the west." Scattershot said, checking his scanner's readings. "We'll need to rotate personal shield harmonics just to walk."

Jetfire nodded, noting how the planet had turned into one giant death trap. How Moonracer managed to survive underground for so long was baffling to him. Still, he had a job to do, one that might give some glimmer of hope to Cybertron becoming somewhat livable again. He had to know or he'll miss this chance entirely.

The exploration team traversed the devastated ruins of once magnificent cities they each called home at some point in time. Nothing looked recognizable save for the fallen buildings, destroyed bridges and shattered streets. There were barely any skyscrapers anymore, just smaller buildings and towers that were just barely holding on in the wake of violent solar storms.

They walked along the border between Altihex and Polyhex, taking a shortcut through the ruins of the city-state Kalis. The sky was pitch black, covered in large clouds so thick that they couldn't see the stars beyond. The planet's environment, lacking an atmosphere, was highly vulnerable to cosmic evens such as solar storms and flares that would relentlessly ravage the planet. As it was, they were running on borrowed time before the large amounts of radiation would start to affect them. As such, everyone kept a close eye on their shielding for any changes. One glitch could mean an instant overload from the radioactive particles contaminating the air.

Jetfire stood on the outskirts of Kalis, looking out into the distant horizon to see nothing by deep craters, fallen landmarks and jagged swaths of land. Ignoring the depressing sight, he checked his sensory apparatus, seeing that it wasn't working very well.

"Can't get a visual fix, and instrumentation isn't giving me some distinctly variable bearings." Jetfire said and called up the Calabi-Yau. "I hope you're back in orbit, Afterburner, because we need a locator pulse." He got some garbled words through a wall of static in response. "Afterburner? Do you read me?"

"… _Barely…"_ Afterburner replied. Back on the ship, which had returned to orbit, the mech was working on getting through the radio noise. It was hard with all the radiation making instruments go haywire planetside. " _Cosmic radiation levels are messing with all comm-channels, but I do have a pretty solid fix on the energon pocket. Transmitting locator pulse now."_

"Say that again, Afterburner. You're breaking up." Jetfire said. He scowled and cut his comm off. At least they knew where they were now.

They left Kalis to traverse the wilderness beyond the city, which seemed to be even more ravaged and destroyed than the rest of the area they had passed through. Scores of twisted metal that looked like it had been warped curved above their heads like giant ribcages, and hollowed out caves that led nowhere could be seen every here and there. The already tense atmosphere felt even darker, and a sense of foreboding came down upon some of the Technobots. No one voiced these concerns, as they were largely superficial, but it was Lightspeed's assessment of their surroundings that brought it to the forefront.

"Hey, is it just me, or does anyone else recognize this place?" He asked.

Jetfire looked around. Now that he mentioned it, something did look rather familiar about this place. They had aimlessly wandered near the very edge of Kalis' borders, near Polyhex. The weather had gotten worse, and storm clouds hovered overhead, with lightning crackling ever few seconds. He magnified his mask's vision and saw that they were near a very deep chasm. It looked like a giant wound carved into the side of the planet, unnatural and ghoulish. The chasm went on for miles and was so deep that they couldn't see the bottom. That was when Jetfire finally remembered where they were.

"Thunderhead Pass."

Strafe looked around at the area, feeling like they were in someplace they weren't meant to be. "I wasn't there when…it happened. Was it as b-bad as they say?"

"Worse. And I was back in field-ops trying to find some kind of effective countermeasure, some way of just slowing it down. What it was like out here, in the heart of the maelstrom, I can barely imagine." Jetfire said morosely.

The Technobots knew of what he spoke of. The battle the brought the War for Cybertron to an abrupt end. The event that many refer to as the Fall.

"They never recovered a body, did they?" Scattershot asked, looking out at the stormy clouds that grew more violent with each passing second. Strong winds blew through the chasm, the wind tunnel causing a deep sound like an agonized groan to reverberate into the air.

"No."

XXXXXX

" _Prime…Prime!"_

 _Optimus heard someone calling his name through the dark haze clouding his senses. He ached all over and he could barely open his eyes._

" _Don't die on me, Prime. Not yet." The voice said. "You don't get off that easy."_

 _After some urging, Optimus opened his eyes to see Megatron's scowling face looming over him. Optimus' body was half buried in the debris of the field base he was commanding from, his armor cracked and he was sure at least one of his limbs was broken. It hurt to move, but he slowly sat up while Megatron watched his nemesis regain his senses._

" _Megatron?" Optimus groaned. "Wha…"_

" _The adversary has breached the siege wall." Megatron said, getting to his feet. He too was covered in cuts and burns, and his left eye looked a bit dimmer than his right eye. "It's now or never."_

" _No…" Optimus shook his head and looked around at the destruction around him. Autobots and Decepticons lie dead, their bodies broken and smashed beyond recognition, scattered across the landscape like leaves on the ground. That monster…one blast from it caused this?_

" _Get up, Prime. And fight." Megatron said, uncaring for Prime's despair. "This isn't over."_

XXXXXX

"Prime?"

"Hmm? Oh, Prowl. Excuse me."

Optimus was taken out of his deep thinking by Prowl, who stood behind him, attentive as ever, but also a bit concerned. He had been standing in the Ark's computer room for a long time, doing nothing but standing there staring out the window with nothing but the computer monitor as his source of light. He had been like this for a few days now and the rest of the team was starting to get worried.

"Sir, are you alright?" Prowl asked.

"Yes, Prowl, I'm fine. Sorry." Optimus apologized. Even his voice sounded tired.

"Prime, forgive me for saying this, but you're really bad at lying." Prowl said. "Is there something wrong?"

"I…don't know. For the past few days, I've been feeling a dark sense of foreboding that's keeping me up at night." Optimus said, looking back out the window. "I feel as if something bad is going to happen."

"On Terra?" Prowl inquired. The Decepticons have been rather docile lately, and it was relatively peaceful so far.

"No, far from here. I'm having a feeling I haven't felt since…The Fall."

Prowl's face darkened. "I see."

They said nothing else after that, and Prowl respectfully gave Optimus his space. Once he was alone again, Optimus put a hand to his head and sighed. He was having those dreams again, the dreams of fire, thunder, pain. Dreams of the fall of his homeworld.

Dreams of the apocalypse.

XXXXXX

 _The vertiginous descents into my own, personal purgatory persist. Even the business of running a bitter war of attrition does nothing to stave off the dark, foreboding fracturing of my psyche._

 _I see the end._

 _But in the shuddering, lurching instant brings scant comfort. For I know deep down…it never ends._

XXXXXX

At the edge of Thunderhead Pass, the Technobots set up a relay station and Jetfire did a systems check to make sure everything, or at least most of their equipment, was running smoothly.

"Okay, I think we're set." Jetfire said. "Strafe?"

"Ready."

"Jetfire, far be it from me to resist my scientific curiosity, but should we be doing this?" Scattershot asked uncertainly. "I mean, if this is the spot where it all went down-literally-then perhaps we should leave well enough alone."

"Believe me, Scattershot, I have my own misgivings. But if we don't investigate, if we pretend whatever it is just isn't there, we may precipitate in a fresh cataclysm." He swept his hand at the barren land around them. "All this is because we didn't ask the questions, didn't look beyond our own narrow little concerns. We were so fixated on whatever frontier we were defending or advancing, we never looked to see what we were doing to the planet."

Jetfire sighed and gave a humorless chuckle at the irony of that statement. "Typical. Of all the brilliant and innovative minds we had on tap, a Decepticon is the first to realize what short-sighed blinkered gear grinders we all were."

He thought back to the Decepticon scientist who contacted him in secret, along with other scientific minds in the war, regardless of faction. He was an obscure Decepticon who rarely acted on the frontlines, but had went to great lengths to warn them of their planet's failing stability. He told them, with growing desperation and urgency that the constant seismic shifts, increasing levels of cosmic radiation and contractions of the core led to one inescapable fact…Cybertron was dying.

The ever growing violence of the war, followed by the leaching of all available resources had shattered the planet's ability to restore and replenish itself. As it is, Cybertron's protective atmosphere was degrading because of the large scale battles and detonation of heavy weapons within a small time scale.

There was no way to stop it at that point. All they could do, the scientist said, was find ways to weather the collapse and do what they can to survive. Jetfire remembered staying silent while everyone else argued the probability of such a disaster occurring, while some, like Perceptor, dismissed the scientist's claims.

' _Then you are fools!'_ He told them in anger. ' _When the storm comes, and it will, I will be ready. And you all can either follow my lead or die screaming in torment!'_

That scientist's name was Thunderwing.

"So in answer to your question, Scattershot, yes. We should. Whatever we find, however unpalatable it might be we can't just pretend it's not there." Jetfire continued. "Strafe, launch the probe."

Strafe pressed the button and the diagnostic probe launched into the sky before falling into the deep chasm below them. As they watched it vanish, Scattershot checked their radiation levels.

"Jetfire, that particle storm we tracked is closing in fast. We need to be gone before it reaches us." He said. "Our personal shielding can only hold so much."

"Agreed. Strafe, Lightspeed, pack up any non-essential equipment and get ready to move out." Jetfire said. "We'll analyze the data from the probe once we're back onboard the Calabi-Yau."

Lightspeed stood up and stretched his arms. "Well Cybertron, it's been a blast, but I for one am ready to say good-AGH!"

Lightspeed cried out as something sharp stabbed him in the chest and electrocuted him, making him fall into stasis lock before hitting the ground. The other mechs were already on high alert before he even hit the ground.

"Lightspeed!" Jetfire drew his blaster. "What happened?"

"I don't know!" Strafe said. "I thought I saw-AHH!"

Strafe was also hit by something that violently jolted him and he went unconscious as well. But this time, Jetfire saw something shift in the air above the fallen Technobot before fading away. He and Scattershot stood back to back to avoid any more surprise attacks.

"Light warping armor. Someone's trying to snipe us." Jetfire said.

"Yeah, but who are they? What are they doing here?" Scattershot asked. "And why are we getting the short, sharp shock treatment?"

"Good questions but for another time. Right now we need options!"

"Uh," He looked back at her. "Fire at will?"

Jetfire was silent for only a split second before he and Scattershot began firing their rifles in all directions. They didn't hit anything living from what they could tell, and it soon became apparent that all the shooting was doing more harm than good. Jetfire noticed that the weather was getting worse and stopped shooting.

"Stop shooting, Scattershot! The particle storm is right on us!" He yelled.

His warning came too late as their personal shields were assaulted by a wave of ambient electromagnetic energy that completely incapacitated them. Their shooting had accidentally catalyzed the dense particle mass gathering around them, creating a local effect akin to how water channels electricity.

Jetfire could barely move as he struggled not to fall into stasis lock. "W-We need to get out of here!"

"Nosecone, Afterburner, can you hear me?" Scattershot groaned. "Send us-wait…" He saw multiple forms around them, invisible and seemingly immune to the effects of the ionized atmosphere. "Jetfire, I see them! They're all around us!"

"Slag!" Jetfire cursed.

Their invisible assailants jammed their energon prods into the two Autobots, shocking them and sending them offline.

XXXXXX

Up in orbit, the Calabi-Yau was still trying to get in contact with their friends on the planet's surface, but could get no reply. This worried the two Techonobots, who were already on edge.

"Jetfire? Jetfire, was that you?" Nosecone called into the receiver. "Nothing but dead air. Probably just the particle storm, but-"

"Oh slag!" Afterburner cursed, making Nosecone jump.

"What?" Nosecone looked at the radar, which was showing four blips heading towards their ship. "Oh slag! Where did that come from?"

"The planet." Afterburner answered.

"Time to impact?"

"Moments."

The two Autobots wasted no time in heading to wave escape pods in the lower deck. Nosecone was able to use what precious seconds they had left to send out a distress buoy. The Calabi-Yau was a survey ship and was not built for combat, let alone take on warheads directly and get out in one piece. If they didn't make it out, someone had to know what was going on."

Outside, the missiles flew towards the ship and the Calabi-Yau went up in a bright explosion that lit up Cybertron's sky for a moment before all went dark once more.

XXXXXX

' _The distant crash of thunder unleashes yet another blinding flash of bitter memory. There is no hiding from it, from what it did, and didn't, do. We used and abused our world, and in the process created a monster. Our folly, our ignorance, out short sightedness given dread shape and form. It took everything we had and more to stop it, to halt its flailing apocalyptic advance. But even then, it was not the creature that yielded by Cybertron itself!_

 _As if bent on one last selfless act of sacrifice, it took out sin and swallowed it whole. Some transgressions, though are simply too bit to stay buried. With dire certainty I know that one day-perhaps later, perhaps sooner-the storm will rise again, and even in the farthest corners of the universe, we will hear its name!'_

Jetfire groaned as he regained consciousness. His body was still numb from the effects of the charged particle storm that ravaged his systems and it took a while for his motor functions to get back to normal again. When he regained full motion of his body, he relegalized that his hands were encased in stasis cuffs designed to prevent transformation. Then he heard the chanting.

It was faint and garbled at first due to his still rebooting audio sensors, but as they recalibrated, he began to decipher the words. Multiple voices chanting a single word, a name in reverence. The name echoed into the cave she was in and as he looked up he saw a group of mechs standing in front of a colossal figure encased in a stasis pod. It was a humanoid creature of Cybertronian origin that looked like some mythical demon from the Covenant of Primus. It was a name that he had nightmares about, a name he thought he would never hear again.

" **THUNDERWING!"**


	16. Stormbringer part 2

Chapter 16-Stormbringer part 2

' _We saw the signs, the portents-the dark clouds gathering on our horizons, and yet we averted our eyes. Pretended it wasn't coming. And in doing so, we unleashed a storm of an even greater magnitude, one that so very nearly destroyed us all.'_

XXXXXX

Jetfire liked to think of himself as someone who maintained a certain level of calm during tense situations, a requirement when dealing in the scientific field, where things can go catastrophically wrong in some cases. It was something he instilled within himself to weather through the shapism that ran rampant through the pre-war years. But looking up at the motionless monstrosity that stood still as a statue, the same monster that led to the total exile of the cybertronians from their home planet, he felt a fury he didn't know he had rise up inside himself.

Standing over him was Bludgeon, the leader of this mysterious group of fanatics who set up a base deep underground, far enough that the solar radiation and particle storms couldn't do any serious damage. The very bottom of Thunderhead Pass.

"You're insane." Jetfire hissed. "That thing you're worshipping took us to the brink. Thousands of people died trying to stop it."

"No more than the thousands that have died in your war, Autobot." Bludgeon replied.

"Listen to me, Bludgeon, you can't control it!" Jetfire said.

"I do not seek to control it. Merely guide it, direct it." Bludgeon corrected. "Worlds will burn, a mass sacrifice that will appease the spirit of this planet and return it to its former glory!"

"You actually believe that, don't you?" Jetfire couldn't believe how into this Bludgeon was. He heard stories of his madness, but thought that it was just the Cons hyping up an already dangerous warrior, but this was beyond insane. This mech was willing to set thousands of worlds aflame to satisfy his so-called righteous cause. "Primus help us all."

"We visited this apocalypse upon ourselves. We took something magnificent and turned it into a wasteland!" Bludgeon glared down at him as if he were Unicron himself, eyes burning with hatred. "And there is blame to be apportioned, Jetfire; you must shoulder your share. You knew, you were warned. And yet you did nothing."

He was right in a sense. Had they at least heeded Thunderwing's warnings, something could have been done to relieve the stress their war was taking on the planet. And maybe Thunderwing wouldn't have been forced to take matters into his own hands and end up in the state he was in now. The mech who ironically ended up the bringing about the very end he predicted.

"You're wrong." Jetfire said firmly. "Sure, he saw where things were going ahead of the rest of us, maybe, but what he did to himself was not the answer." He shook his head. "It drove him mad, and ultimately just accelerated the end."

Bludgeon stomped down hard on his chest. "There are no endings, Jetfire. Just cycles. In time, Cybertron will rise again, renewed. And in the meantime-we will finish what Thunderwing started!"

XXXXXX

Optimus hadn't expected his morning to begin with an Autobot shuttle flying down from orbit just a few miles from the Ark's location. It was manned by a three-mech crew, led by Searchlight, an Autobot cadet. After meeting up with Optimus and Prowl, Searchlight said that he was sent by Elita-1, declaring a state of emergency that required his immediate attention. Optimus would soon learn why after reading the briefing Searchlight gave him.

"Has this been verified?" Optimus asked after reading the datapad.

"Yes, sir. The message buoy was definitely launched by the Calabi-Yau. We've tried hailing her and nothing, just dead space." Searchlight said. "Action?"

Optimus knew something was wrong. An energy trace detected in the immediate vicinity of Thunderhead Pass. This was only minutes before missiles were launched from roughly the same location. It was clear someone was fooling around in Thunderwing's graveyard and it probably had something to do with the monster itself. He hated it when his premonitions came true.

"Prowl."

"Yes, Prime?"

"I'm leaving you in command until my return." Optimus said without much explanation. "I'm heading to Orbital Command to get an update on the situation."

"You're leaving?" Prowl said shocked. He wasn't expecting that abrupt decision. "What…"

"Something's come up that I can't ignore, Prowl. My success or failure may dictate whether this war ends with most of us surviving this catastrophe." Optimus said and walked toward the shuttle with Searchlight.

"I'll handle things here, Prime." Prowl nodded.

"Is there anything else you need, sir?" Searchlight asked.

That didn't take much thought. "Yes, Searchlight. Get me the Wreckers."

XXXXXX

Springer would be lying if he said that he liked leading the Wreckers. They took jobs no one else was qualified for, and the high mortality rate wore away at a bot's sanity over time. But he did have a hand in its formation with Impactor and considered it his responsibility. So between choosing to lead a group of bots who he might be leading into a total massacre and having some pencil pusher like Ultra Magnus who'd rather spend his career kissing the ass of the Galactic Council, Springer decided to take one for the team.

However, there were times when this job grated on Springer's nerves. This was one of those times.

"What do you mean it's a lost cause? Of course it's a lost cause. That's why we're here!" Springer yelled into the radio. In the background, chaos reigned as his forces were attacking a Decepticon installation that was giving them more trouble than they initially realized. Explosions blossomed around him like weeds, but he paid it all no mind. "Say again? No. I don't care if its phase sixty! We don't cede this world to the Cons without one hell of a kick and struggle. So shut up, Bluestreak and get your squad here now or you'll miss all the fun!"

The Wreckers were trying to take a distant planet, Varas Centralus, back from the Decepticons, who were already deeply entrenched into the siege mode process of their Infiltration Protocol. It was hard; a lot of artillery fire was coming their way, and though there were few casualties on their side, the position of the fortress they were attacking and the dense geography of the terrain itself wasn't helping.

Springer called his demolition team. "Scoop, how's my storm tunnel going?"

" _Slowly, Springer, slowly_." Scoop answered. " _The local rock is very dense. Primus knows how the Decepticons got their siege mode armature placed!"_

Springer sighed. "Honest, virtuous effort, Scoop. Tell Twin Twist to keep at it."

"Springer!" A tall, heavy set brown and green mech hefting a gattling cannon in his large hands walked over to his long time commander. "Ops-command. It's urgent."

"Isn't it always, Roadbuster? Give it here." Roadbuster tossed him the radio and he listened to the bot on the other line. "Yes? No, not yet. Look, what the hell are you calling fo…direct order from Prime? What about Varas?" There was some grumbling on the other line. "One big disaster area? That's never stopped us in the past!" The mech on the other side spoke a little louder, making Springer scowl. "Fine. Hate leaving a battle half-fought though."

He hung up and tossed the radio back to Roadbuster and stomped away. "Summons from on high. We're being redeployed." He said bitterly.

"To where?" Roadbuster asked.

"Home. Cybertron."

XXXXXX

Bludgeon led Jetfire and his two guards, Skullgrin and Finback into a larger chamber that had a large chair sitting in front of a couple of monitors. Placed in an oversized CR chamber was a massive dark gray cybertronian, standing taller than even Grimlock, with a heavily armored frame and a bestial, skeletal face with dark, lifeless eyes. It had wings folded up on its back and powerful limbs that added to its imposing appearance. This was Cybertron's killer, the monstrous Thunderwing.

"I'm begging you, don't do it!" Jetfire pleaded. "This thing is not a containable quantity. It's a force of nature. You can't seriously hope to direct it like some guided missile. It'll overwhelm you, roll right over you! It's power…it's just too big."

Bludgeon chuckled as he sat in the control chair. "I understand your awe. It's how we felt when we first exhumed the entity from the depths into which it fell. But it can be done. The neuroscape is voice of all traces of volition or sentience, burned out on its last flailing rampage."

He pressed some buttons and four cables connected to the back of the chair, right above where the back of his head was plugged into the cords extending from the chair. The machine hummed to life as energon traveled through the cables and into the still form of Thunderwing, slowly raising his power levels.

"Via the uplink, I can imprint my will-provide rudimentary impulses and navigational prompts. The rest, well," Bludgeon passed as a faint glow came to Thunderwing's eyes. "It'll be a case of doing what comes naturally."

"No, no! If you let it loose, there'll be no stopping it." Jetfire exclaimed. "You can't just turn it on and off, Thunderwing will consume everything…you included!"

"I think not." Bludgeon turned to his other companions manning the controls. "Iguanus, Bomb Burst, rouse the entity."

"This has gone far enough!" Jetfire kicked Skullgrin in the face. "You'll kill us all and countless more! You have to-"

Finback stabbed his energon prod into his back and Jetfire fell to his knees in violent spasms.

"Enough! No sense in wasting raw materials." Bludgeon glared down at Jetfire. "I wanted you to see this much, Jetfire. To understand what will be, but you negativity is starting to grate." He motioned to the guards. "Skullgrin, Finback, put him with the others. He will reflect on his lack of faith as he is recycled along with his compatriots."

Iguanas checked the readings. "Bludgeon, Ore-13 levels at fifty percent and rising. It won't be much longer now."

The fire in Thunderwing's eyes grew brighter.

XXXXXX

The Autobot battleship, the Xanthium, was already halfway through foldspace carrying the Wreckers, heading in a straight course towards Cybertron. Springer was being briefed by Optimus Prime, who was at Orbital Command assembling a strike unit to head to the same planet. Needless to say, the Wrecker commander was not enjoying the conversation no more than he was looking forward to visiting his dead home planet either.

"Thunderwing, huh?" Springer frowned. "Never did want to live forever."

" _That's not confirmed, Springer, but given the circumstances, I'm taking no chances."_ Optimus said. His grim expression was visible even through the rather horrid holo-image reception.

"Our ETA is nineteen kliks. You?"

" _About that, we'll rendezvous on the dark side of Solomus."_

"Fine." Springer said and leaned back in his chair with a weary sigh. "Prime, look, if it is Thunderwing, conventional weaponry won't cut it. We know that from bitter experience. If all else fails…I say we torch what's left of Cybertron and that monstrosity along with it!"

A dark look fell over Prime's face, but he didn't refute Springer's suggestion. _"I'll take that into consideration. Prime out."_

Optimus ended the transmission and rubbed the bridge of his nose. The situation was spiraling out of control, just like before. He never imagined the possibility that Thunderwing might return, or rather, someone was crazy enough to revive him. That primal roar, the dying screams of Autobots and Decepticons, the deafening boom of explosions and the blinding flash of K-bombs burning craters straight through the planet's crust. He clenched his eyes shut as he relived those memories, the days where he honestly felt afraid for himself and everyone who fought with him.

"Optimus?"

Optimus looked up and saw Elita-1 entering the command center. Leader he may be, but he was using Elita-1's ship, the Liliac Avenger, to get to Cybertron, so he tried not to step on any toes while sharing her ship. Not that she minded, they rarely had time together these days.

"I'm fine, Elita. Just…tense." Optimus said hesitantly.

"I know. You're not the only one." She said and stood beside him, watching foldspace go by their ship.

"Elita, do you think I made the right choice?" Prime asked. "Not finishing the job back at Thunderhead Pass?"

"Yes, I believe you followed through with your gut. We've already done enough damage to the planet without dropping enough bombs to blast its inner mantle apart. And Thunderwing really was beaten, just not destroyed like we thought." She said.

Optimus looked at his hands and thought back to the time after they had just defeated Thunderwing in the area that would later be known as Thunderhead Pass.

XXXXXX

" _You have to see the bigger picture, Prime!"_

 _Megatron and Optimus stood at the edge of the smoking crater that extended for miles from east to west as far as the eye can see, the result of an orbital cannon unleashing absolute hell down on the monster that had ravaged the landscape and nearly annihilated both Autobots and Decepticons. The rest of the region had been scorched beyond recognition as a result of Thunderwing's constant energy discharges._

" _You're sentiment blinds you to the reality of our current situation!" Megatron growled. "We his this thing we everything we had and it just kept coming. Chances are it's still not dead. We have to make sure. Finish the job."_

" _By nuking the entire planet?" Optimus whirled on Megatron and glared at him. "I won't accept that. Our shortsightedness had pushed Cybertron to the very brink. I can't-won't-see it destroyed. If you even think about doing such a thing, I will stop you."_

 _Megatron glared at Optimus, and after a tense moment, he spun around and walked away. Very well, Prime. But if anything happens because of your weakness, all the deaths are on your head!"_

XXXXXX

"Optimus Prime?"

Optimus looked away from his datapad to see a short light-blue Autobot standing next to him saluting. "Ah. Um, Dogfight, isn't it?"

"Yes sir! I, ah, just wanted to say what an honor it is to serve alongside you on this mission." Dogfight said eagerly. This was probably his first mission serving alongside Prime himself. And the only one in a long while. "I am very excited by the opportunity."

"Excited?" Optimus said bitterly and gave a humorless chuckle. "Let us hope, Dogfight, that when, one way or another, this is all over…that sentiment prevails."

XXXXXX

Nosecone grunted as he hit the jagged ground, wincing a bit at the pain in his cranium before pushing himself off the ground. The escape pod he just fell out of had crashed into a building and was knocked onto its side upon crash landing, nearly throwing the two Autobots out of their life boat. He shook his head to clear the stars from his vision and looked around.

"Afterburner?" He called out, stumbling out of the ruined building. "Afterburner!"

"Ugh…"

Nosecone saw Afterburner on the ground, leaning against a slab of ore groaning. The Technobot tried to move, but his mind was fuzzy and it was hard to think straight. "Everything hurts…hard to think…to move…"

Nosecone reached down and threw Afterburner's arm over his shoulders before pulling his friend up. "I know. Cosmic radiation levels are out of control. Flashpoint and the others have shielding-we don't. We need to find shelter before we die."

"I thought w-we were…" Afterburner's voice box became a garbled mess for a second. "Already dead."

"We just barely scraped by. We managed to get into the escape pod, but the blast wave knocked out the pod's gyro-guidance thrusters." Nosecone explained.

They stumbled along the ravaged streets of some unknown avenue, but froze as they heard a loud earth shattering boom and Nosecone looked up just in time to see a large alien jet fly over them and quickly disappear into Cybertron's atmosphere.

"Wzat?" Afterburner slurred.

"Nothing. Come on, I think there's a storage bunker by the lateral zero perimeter." Nosecone helped his friend along the desolate terrain of damaged buildings and streets. Then he cursed as he saw beams of light shine down on them from up ahead. "Slag!"

Nosecone dragged Afterburner behind a wall and prayed that they weren't spotted. Seconds later, a trio of large white drones marched past them, standing nearly three times taller than the Technobot pair and sporting a variety of weapons on their shoulders and bulky arms. Their red visors emitted scanning beams that comb the area for anything that moved. Nosecone didn't even twitch until the drones were far enough down the street that he could let out a sigh without being discovered.

"Wh they-?"

"Yeah. Overcharge drones." Nosecone groaned. "Question is…were they on patrol or looking for us?"

Overcharge drones were high grade military units that were once used by the Senate militia of pre-war Cybertron. They were large, guzzled energon like no tomorrow, but were very dangerous when deployed in large groups, making them damn near impossible to combat without losing a limb.

"Those things were upgraded to the teeth. They were probably reactivated by the same goons who tried to vap us in orbit." Nosecone hefted Afterburner onto his back and carried him back out onto the street. "We have to keep moving. Between those overcharge drones and the general toxic smog, we're nearing out expiration date."

"Nosecone, I-"Afterburner's legs gave out as the effects of the ambient radiation finally caught up to him. "Don't think…I can go onnnn…."

Afterburner went into stasis lock and Nosecone tried to rouse him back to consciousness, only to feel the radiation sickness begin to affect him too. If he stayed out here any longer, he would go into stasis lock as well. And without any medical attention on standby, stasis lock was equivalent to death in this wasteland. "I can't…move…" He grunted.

He yelped as a bright light shined down on him and he looked up to see two overcharge drones looming over him, their sensors glowing ominously as they scanned him and identified him and his comrade as an enemy.

"Frag!" Nosecone rasped.

The drones stomped forward towards the Technobot and reached down with their titanium pincers, ready to annihilate any intruders on the orders of their masters.

XXXXXX

"Huh?"

Deep inside a Decepticon bunker on the planet Ardan, the Decepticon Rukus quickly pulled himself upright as the computer started beeping.

"Rukus?" A dark blue mech with an aerodynamic frame looked over his shoulder curiously. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know, Darkwing. I've got a mysterious aircraft approaching the planet." Rukus reported. "Whatever it is, it's closing in fast."

"Ardian?"

"Negative. Too big, too sophisticated. It emergred through a foldspace transition so it must have some kind of interstellar drive." Rukus brought up the video feed from cameras mounted in some of northern Ardian's most important cities. "We should have a visual now."

The assembled Decepticon infiltration team watched as the strange aircraft hovered over the city like a bird of prey, its large shadow falling over the scared green-skinned Ardians. Like a storm cloud, its engines rumbled like thunder and its form crackled with black lightning as it began to shift forms.

For most of the Decepticons present, it was like seeing a nightmare come to life. The large alien aircraft transformed into a titanic menace, cybertronian, but more powerful than any conventional Autobot or Decepticon. Once it took on its humanoid configuration, it crashed into the middle of the city and roared a mighty, distorted howl that rippled across the entire continent.

Thunderwing has returned, and the world of Ardan was set aflame.

XXXXXX

 _We saw the signs, the portents, the dark clouds gathering on our horizons, and yet we averted out eyes, pretended it wasn't coming. And in doing so we unleashed a storm of even greater magnitude, one that so very nearly destroyed us all._

 _And now it seem-others shall reap the whirlwind._

* * *

 **Be sure to check out the Transformers Titan website on wordpress. Directions to link is in my profile.**


	17. Stormbringer part 3

Chapter 17-Stormbringer part 3

 _It is a cleansing, purifying fire, a torrid tempest sweeping away the petrified remembrance of sins past. A sword, forged from pure anarchy and bedlam, to scribe bloody tribute to angry powers that be. Judgment. Nemesis. Armageddon. Apocalypse._

 _Now. Worlds will burn. And from the ashes of funeral pyres lit the length and breadth of the galaxy-a new Cybertron will rise! This is just the beginning.'_

XXXXXX

Bludgeon had never felt so elated. Thunderwing's cleansing had gotten off to a great start. He was already in the process of torching a city on the planet Ardan, where Bludgeon knew there was a Decepticon infiltration squad stationed there. Good, he wanted the Decepticons to know about this. Once Thunderwing had tasted cybertronian blood, it will come for the sinners who brought about this misery. Retribution will be given to Cybertron and its murderers will be brought to justice!

"When the entity is finished on Ardan, when it has reduced the planet to a cinder and eradicated every living thing on it," Bludgeon said. "We will send it onwards to another planet, and another."

"All hail Thunderwing." Skullgrin said reverently.

"Iguanus, engage the auto-driver." Bludgeon ordered. Once the control unit was placed on autopilot, Bludgeon disconnected himself from the machine. "Good. Now our little weapon of mass destruction knows what's expected of it by now. Contact Ember and give her a status report."

"Yes, Bludgeon." Finaback said.

Bludgeon left the chamber and entered a room far from the opening shaft, near the very edge of the cavern they were stationed in. He walked towards a collection of stasis pods and stopped in front of one pod that was covered in sickly green lines of fleshy material. He popped it open to reveal a large ghoulish husk of organic material woven together like a grotesque tapestry. The fruits of Thunderwing's labor from his studies of something called polydermic grafting.

Thunderwing had proposed that the remaining cybertronians on Cybertron encase themselves in prosthetic, biomechanical shells that would help them adapt to the changing atmosphere and survive the planet's worsening conditions. Alas, it was refused by Megatron, Shockwave and even the Autobot scientists who bothered to listen to him, and when desperation sets in, even the smartest people take drastic measures to ensure their words are heard.

"Poor Thunderwing. You bio-cybernetic grafting process was a truly staggering innovation, but alas, untested. Instead of protecting you, the shell's symbiotic fusion process destroyed your mind and drove you mad. Not even the Underbase could provide you the hindsight to save your sanity." Bludgeon stood in front of the shell that was destined to be worn by him. "We on the other hand, have the benefit of more measured research, some trial and error. We will all have unlimited power, invulnerability, and the wit to use them!"

Thunderwing was their trump card, their flaming sword to inflict righteous fury upon this sinful universe and bring about a new age. The new millennium prophesized by the divine voices that had spoken to him for so long. The Age of Stone!

XXXXXX

Nosecone never put much thought into how he would die. He presumed it would be quick and unexpected, like most deaths in this war (anything aside from being slagged by the DJD or placed in the Grindcore prison camp). Gunned down by a Decepticon, shot down in the midst of open warfare, hell even an industrial accident! Not from radiation sickness and a drone of all things on the remains of his home planet.

"Ack!" He grunted as one drone grabbed him by the neck and lifted him up. "Heh, I'm not afraid of you! Do your worst!"

He shut his eyes as the rail gun on the drone's arm was pointed at his face and prayed that it would be quick. He waited for the telltale flash and the slight sting of an electrified projectile blasting his cranium to pieces before darkness overtook him, but nothing happened. Nosecone cracked on eye open and saw that the drone holding him had its head blown off. The other drone standing over Afterburner was assaulted by blaster bolts and fell back from a missile strike that tore into its chest. He fell to the ground as two Autobots set him free. He panted slightly as he recognized his rescuers as members of the Wreckers, Roadbuster and Topspin.

"Hostiles are down. Topspin, how are they?" Roadbuster asked.

"Lifesigns are erratic. We need to stabilize them quick." Topspin said.

"Not here, the area's too hot." Roadbuster looked up at the blue helicopter hovering over their position. "Whirl, we need an emergency evac!"

Nosecone groaned as his head fell back, exhaustion catching up to him as he fell into stasis.

XXXXXX

The first thing Nosecone saw when he woke up was a bright yellow orb staring him in the face. He almost jumped, but realized that it was actually a single eye that belonged to the moron who was staring at him like a creeper.

"Whirl, stop bothering Nosecone and go help the others!"

"I was just monitoring his condition! You never know when you might need to euthanize someone." Whirl said nonchalantly. Nosecone also realized that Whirl had his gun pointed to the side of his head.

"Whirl, so help me…"

"All right, I'm moving." Whirl said, somehow disappointed that he didn't get to shoot his gun after having it charged and ready.

Nosecone looked down and saw that he and Afterburner were lying side by side hooked up to life support machines with Topspin checking their vitals.

Top…spin? If you're here, then," Nosecone paused to gather his thoughts. His mind was still foggy from his reawakening. "Our message got through?"

"Big time! Made everyone sit up and pay attention, I can tell you!" Topspin grinned and pointed behind him.

Nosecone couldn't hold back his surprise when he saw Optimus Prime himself standing with Elita-1, Springer and the Wreckers near the hole dug by Twin Twist. They even had Broadside with them! He didn't think that Prime himself would abandon his battle against Megatron on Terra to help them out, but it must have showed just how dire things were.

Nosecone turned to the still offline Afterburner. "What about Afterburner?"

"Took a bigger hit of cosmic radiation than you did-he'll be out a little while longer" Topspin said. "Lucky we came when we did. Whoever rebooted those overcharge drones wasn't taking prisoners."

"Where are we?"

"An old border fortification east of Thunderhead Pass, sub-level. We're going in to get our friends back!"

Topspin explained that they discovered a sub-surface complex underground. They figured it was also where Jetfire and the others were being held, along with their captors. Once they dug a tunnel into the complex, they'll jump in and storm the place fast and hard.

Nosecone allowed himself to relax. His friends were going to be all right. That thought alone allowed him to sag in relief and he went back to a peaceful slumber.

XXXXXX

The Ardanian Decepticon infiltration unit was completely silent as they watched Thunderwing cause chaos in the Ardanian city. An hour had passed and the city was completely destroyed, a burning ruin devastated by the creature with awe inspiring fury and power. Thousands of people were dead in the initial attack and Ardanian defense forces were utterly useless against it.

No one said a thing, until Rukus spoke up. "So…do we try and stop it? Or give it a helping hand? I mean, it's doing what we want done anyway-just a lot quicker."

"Depends if it knows where and when to stop." Darkwing said. "Global devastation may be our goal here, but we need some world left to strip down and ship out. That thing destroyed Cybertron single-handed, and it'll make short work of us."

The hulking form of Skullcruncher looked at his unit commander in shock. "You don't mean-"

"We mobilize and add our firepower to the mix." Darkwing said.

"But-"

"Perhaps, Skullcruncher, you'd like to be the one to tell Strika how we lost Ardan."

Skullcruncher closed his mouth and shook his head. "N-no."

"Thought so. Move out people! Hold nothing back and hit it with everything you've got!"

"Yeah!" Darkwing's crew cheered and they all clamored out of the bunker. Thrust remained behind to monitor things and erase any trace of their existence upon leaving this world.

Before they left, Darkwing turned to Dreadwind, his only friend and wing man on this unit. "Listen, Dreadwind, there's a fair chance that this won't go well. If we've did everything we could and it still wasn't enough-we get the hell out of here!"

XXXXXX

Twin Twist and Scoop were hard at work in making the tunnel into the base the team was planning to infiltrate. When you were this deep beneath Cybertron's surface, the rock and metal became denser and harder to dig through, which made it a perfect spot for a border outpost, though it was hell to dig through. Twin Twist pushed his drills to the limit and burrowed as close as he could to the underground complex. Once they were close enough, he stopped.

"Scoop we've reached the buffer zone." He said. "Give the call."

"Springer, we're about done tunneling." Scoop called in. "You're up."

Back on the surface, Springer grinned and looked at his team. "About damn time. Wreckers, let's count heads!"

As the Wreckers sounded off, Optimus turned to Elita-1. "I suppose there's no point in asking you to stay up here, out of the firing line?"

"Undue concern for women often leads to contempt for them." She remarked and cocked her gun. "Let's bring 'em hell."

Finback was leaning against the wall watching a live feed of some Decepticon unit taking on Thunderwing. He shook his head, amazed at the sheer stupidity of these Cons. Who in their right mind would willingly fight a world-killer with less than an army? Then again, the Cons were seriously lacking in brain power these days with most of the egg heads living it up with Strika or Obsidian. His musing was interrupted when he heard a hissing noise coming from above.

"Huh?" He looked up and saw a single point on the ceiling start to heat up rapidly. Then, to his surprise and horror, the ceiling was blasted apart as a large group of heavily armed Autobots fell into the hallway. "No!"

Elita-1 fired two laser bolts into his chest that brought him down. Finback tried to reach for his gun, but Roadbuster mercilessly riddled him with bullets, completely shredding his upper body apart.

In the control room, Bomb-Burst and Skullgrin saw the intruders and grabbed the weapons.

"How the hell did they find us?" Bomb-Burst questioned.

"No clue, but we don't have time to ask how and why." Skullgrin called his leader. "Bludgeon, come in! We've got-"

The wall next to him exploded, sending the two mechs flying away. They tried to fight back, but Springer tossed a grenade into the room and they were blown apart like glass by the sheer force of the blast wave. Iguanas, the only one who survived the initial charge, transformed and sped down the hall toward Bludgeon's inner sanctum.

The Nexus was where Bludgeon kept a living mausoleum of Thunderwing's various experiments and scientific notes. The doors were almost closed when he reached the hall and he slid right under them just before they closed. Iguanus transformed and stumbled forward, trying to calm his rapidly pulsating Spark.

"Bludgeon, the Autobots are here!" He breathed. "Prime himself is here, with the Wreckers and-Bludgeon?"

Bludgeon's tall form was outlined ominously by the dark emerald light emanating from the stasis pods that held the experimental polydermal grafting subjects they were working on. The chamber was full of smoke so thick that Iguanus could barely see farther than a foot in front of them.

"The Autobots are here? Took them long enough. But it's already too late for them." Bludgeon's voice echoed into the chamber. "Thunderwing's restraints have been taken off and he'll kill them all within the day. But my work…is far from over."

Bludgeon walked up to Iguanus, who stared up at his master's new form with awe and fear. Bludgeon had upgraded into a stronger being, and the blasphemers who wronged him would pay dearly.

XXXXXX

On Ardan, the Decepticons' battle against Thunderwing wasn't going as well as they tricked themselves into believing. Thunderwing dwarfed them in size and firepower, not to mention their attacks weren't doing a damn thing to it other than pissing it off. Lasers, photon bursts, concussion blasts, seismic charges, nothing damaged it.

"Hit it with everything we've got, Darkwing says," Crankcase grumbled as he pelted Thunderwing's back with particle beams. "Well I am, Darkwing, and it's not making a damn difference!"

"I'm cranked up to the max," Ruckus said. "But it barely seems to have noticed."

Thunderwing's face, which looked like a grinning skull with flames spewing from its eyes and mouth, looked down at Ruckus and slammed its foot down on the Con, crushing him with its immense weight. Then it picked him up and threw the still transformed mech at Crankcase, hitting him hard enough to send them both crashing into a fallen building.

Roadgrabber tried to attacked Thunderwing's legs with his dense titanium drill mounted on the front of his alt mode, but to his surprise, Thunderwing met his charge with a kick that nearly crushed him into a cube.

"Ruckus, Crankcase and Roadgrabber…totaled!" Dreadwind said in astonishment. "And we've barely started the battle!"

"It's just as I feared! This thing is every bit as powerful and unstoppable as before." Darkwing said. "Lay down some heavy fire!"

The two Seekers dropped a rain of cluster bombs and fired a volley of proton missiles at Thunderwing, engulfing the monster in a massive plume of flames that was bright enough to be spotted from the stratosphere. At the heart of the explosion, Thunderwing remained unharmed, uncaring of the inferno licking at its armor as it glared at the two Cons. Opening its mouth, it gave a loud roar that echoed over the chaos it caused and black lightning arced off its body.

"What is it doing now?" Dreadwing groaned.

Thunderwing began charging up energy in its body and released it in a powerful blast wave of ebony lightning that nearly blew Darkwing and Dreadwing out of the sky. They were mostly unharmed, but the energy they were doused in began screwing with their systems.

"That thing just ionized the atmosphere!" Darkwing shouted. "Navigation's down, tactical's down, no comm signal-that's it! We're picking up Thrust and calling this in!"

The two flyers flew as fast as they could from the disaster area, leaving Thunderwing and the broken bodies of their comrades behind as they flew out of the dark, smoky clouds back towards their base. They had to tell Strika about this quickly before that thing somehow followed them back to High Command or something equally terrifying.

XXXXXX

"We're in!"

Once Twin Twist was finished drilling through the door, the Autobot assault team burst into the Nexus, weapons ready for any more surprises that might be in store of them. However, they had already taken care of Bludgeon's comrades and there was nothing in the room save for a few stasis pods. And the half-dead form of Iguanus.

Optimus knelt down next to the dying mech. Iguanus' torso was torn open, exposing everything from his laser core to his T-cog. Energon was bleeding from his ruptured body by the gallon and it was clear that he didn't have long. Optimus grabbed his flailing hand and leaned over him.

"Iguanus," Optimus said. "Where is Bludgeon?"

Iguanus groaned, already losing the feeling in his body from the shock of his wounds. "You'll never find him. He has done what he came here to do. He has achieved what Thunderwing failed to do, and now the scientist's greatest achievement now lives within him!"

"Greatest achievement?" Elita-1 repeated.

"Thunderwing's polydermal grafting bio-shells." Optimus said, narrowing his eyes. "Bludgeon's perfected it?"

"He has, and n-now Thunderwing will absolve our sins and rebuild Cybertron through the blood of those ungodly heathens…" Iguanus' eyes darkened and his head rolled to the side.

"Of course he runs." Optimus said bitterly and stood up. "For all his talk, Bludgeon certainly has no problem cutting and running when the time calls for it."

"Prime!"

Optimus and Elita-1 turned to see Jetfire enter the room, leaning on Roadbuster for support. The flyer looked as worse as he felt, and he sounded shaken.

"Prime, shut it down!" He exclaimed. "You have to shut down the axis cradle!"

"Axis cradle?"

Jetfire pointed to the control seat by the computer monitors.

"Oh, well why didn't you just say so?" Springer quipped and shot a few plasma bursts into the panel and control seat. Everything quickly shut down after that, and the screens went dark as power was cut off to it.

"They let it out. Those blinkered, deranged, maniacs actually…" Jetfire almost fell forward, but Elita-1 caught him.

"Easy does it, Jetfire." She said. "You're still hurt, so don't strain yourself too much."

"Will that be enough, Jetfire?" Optimus asked. "To end this?"

"I hope so. Because if that didn't stop it, I don't know what will!" Jetfire groaned. He never felt like this before, feeling so afraid of something so powerful and uncontrollable like this. It made him feel small and scared and he didn't like it.

"Uh, guys?" Broadside's deep voice came from the computer station. "You need to see this!"

Optimus, Jetfire and Elita-1 ran over to the station, where Broadside was holding up a datapad that was still hooked up to the console.

"What's that?" Jetfire asked.

"Some kind of orbital perimeter alarm." Broadside said. "It's probably how they picked up your ship."

The datapad started beeping and Broadside checked the readings. Though he lacked a mouth and eyes, his face still darkened, earning concerned glances from those present.

"W-What's wrong?" Jetfire asked hesitantly. "Do we have Decepticons incoming?"

"No," Broadside showed them the image of a large silver alien aircraft appearing just outside of Cybertron's solar system. "Thunderwing."

XXXXXX

Light years away from Cybertron, aboard the Decepticon warship, the Thanatos, Razorclaw of the Predacons was giving Lieutenant Nightshade a briefing on the situation that led to Ardan's loss and the near destruction of an infiltration unit stationed there. He wasn't particularly eager to give her the bad news, but considering Darkwing and Dreadwind were in the med bay getting treated, he had to do it.

"That's what Darkwing said-Thunderwing. I had his brain module checked over myself, it's all true." Razorclaw confirmed. "I never thought I'd hear that name again."

Indeed." Nightshade said, frowning. "Let me be very clear on this, Razorclaw. You will take whatever steps necessary to curtail this…second coming. If entire worlds must burn, then so be it."

Razorclaw nodded, but then he dared to ask a question everyone was thinking. "Including Cybertron?"

Nightshade took a moment to answer, before giving a slow nod. "Yes…especially Cybertron."

* * *

 **Happy holidays and merry Christmas to all, good friends. Thanks for reading and giving your support. Be sure to check out the website for Transformers Titan (directions in my profile) and please leave a review. Hope you all have a wonderful New Year!**


	18. Stormbringer part 4

Chapter 18-Stormbringer part 4

' _This is how it ends.'_

' _Thunder and spitting lightning, in a storm-lashed onslaught-our past transgressions and blinkered inequities revisited in purging fire and roaring fury. Fate-crushing, inexorable-cannot, will not, be held at bay indefinitely!'_

XXXXXX

"It's Thunderwing!" Jetfire gasped. "He's coming back!"

"But we destroyed that axis-thingy." Twin Tiwst said, watching Thunderwing's signal beacon travel across a large portion of their solar system through a foldspace warp. "That was what you said was keeping him going, right?"

"Wrong. I said the axis cradle was controlling Thundering, directing his actions. Without it, some kind of homing instinct must have kicked in." Jetfire deduced. "There's no conscious mind at work here, I'm sure of it, but that won't stop Thunderwing from picking up where he left off."

Optimus fought hard to keep the despair off his face. "Springer?"

"The Wreckers stand ready, Prime, but frankly, the combined power of two whole armies barely stopped it last time, and conditions topside aren't exactly hospitable." Springer said. "Thunderwing's got natural protection, we don't."

"Jetfire?"

"Bludgeon used something he called Ore-13 to re-empower Thunderwing. It's what we detected from orbit. I'm trying to decrypt the files on it, but its slow going."

"Keep trying. Give us something-anything-we can use against it." Optimus said and turned to the others. "We don't quite know how Thunderwing will react or what he'll do once he reaches Cybertron, but he has to be stopped. At any cost."

"Any cost?" Springer echoed. He knew exactly what Prime was getting at.

"If…all else fails, yes." Prime nodded. Elita-1 also realized what Optimus was hinting as and looked at her spouse in shock.

"Whoa, hang on!" Jetfire exclaimed. "You're talking about sacrificing Cybertron itself…after all we've been through to preserve it?"

"Optimus, we've done enough damage to our world already. If we do something as drastic as this…" Elita-1 shook her head in dismay. "What have we been fighting for in the first place?"

"We may have the choice taken from us by Thunderwing, Elita. Especially if we can't find a way to destroy him." Optimus said with a tired sigh. "Just pray that it will not come to that."

XXXXXX

"Divebomb, lock starblitz torpedoes on target and prepare for orbital barrage." Razorclaw ordered.

The Thanatos hid in Solomus's shadow, cloaked from Autobot sensors and hidden from sight as they got into position to carry out what was quite possible the hardest order they've ever gotten to date. No one was happy about possibly scorching Cybertron-their home, their birthplace.

"Timeframe?" Divebomb asked.

"We'll give it…one mega cycle. Call me sentimental, but reducing Cybertron to cinders remains a last resort." He said. "I'm all for pangalactic colonization, but let's face it. There's no place like home."

"Done." Divebomb set the limit on the launch pad. "Abort threshold about fifty-five cycles."

"Fine." Razorclaw clenched his hands, digging his sharp claws into his palms as the anxiety set in. he'll wait for any changes, but if it came down to a choice between blitzing Cybertron and disobeying a direct order from Nightshade-well, the planet was toast. "Here he comes!"

XXXXXX

Thunderwing's large alt mode appeared from foldspace just outside Cybertron's orbit and it flew straight towards the planet without even slowing down. It flew towards Thunderhead Pass, descending upon the ancient battlefield and transforming back to its massive robot mode. From their position behind a nearby hill, the Valkyries Chromia, Firestar and Greenlight were monitoring its movements.

"What's he doing?" Firestar asked.

"Nothing, just standing there." Chromia said, looking at Thunderwing through her scopes. She whistled at its size. "That's a tall son of a glitch, ain't he?'

Greenlight shifted uneasily. "So this is what Kup meant."

"What do you mean?"

"Those last few seconds before a major battle. The calm before the storm." Greenlight explained. "The tension before the bolts start flying is damn near unbearable."

The Autobot femmes continued to monitor Thunderwing, but they didn't know of the rumbling storm within its mind. Landing on Cybertron again, walking along its surface after spending so long in limbo…it triggered something within its mind. Memories of a time when it was mortal, cowering at the feet of people like Megatron and Shockwave. None of those memories were good.

" _The polydermal grafting procedure will ensure that we will be able to survive our planet's worsening environment. By encasing ourselves in symbiotic carapaces, with the bodily tissue culled from living subjects, the neurosphere is spliced o the neo-cortex of the wearer and-"_

" _ENOUGH!"_

 _Thunderwing went silent as Megatron turned his glare onto him. "You expect me to hide inside some grotesque organic shell made from corpses? Have you lost your damn mind?"_

" _Sir, it's a full proof way to survive Cybertron's apocalypse. We will still be able to walk along its surface and continue fighting even when the Autobots are forced to leave!" Thunderwing appealed, but Megatron wasn't having it._

" _Thunderwing, none of your experiments have been tested on living subjects, and even if they were I would not dare subject even Starscream to undergoing such horrid procedures just to survive. We are doing just fine with the crystal-matrix shields." Megatron said._

" _Lord Megatron, please, I just…"_

" _Speak no more of this!" He yelled, making Thunderwing cower before him. "Your remit is discontinued, decommissioned…defunct!"_

Thunderwing remembered the pain he felt as the power of the Underbase filled his body, tore him apart in mind and body and reshaped him. It felt like he went through ten thousand years of pain in just a few seconds. He began growling, arcs of black lightning shooting from his body, and his face glowed like an infernal skeleton.

" **KAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"**

Thunderwing released a howl into the air and a powerful shockwave exploded from its body, destroying everything near it. Chromia and Firestar immediately started running, pulling Greenlight behind them.

"Everybody, move in!" Chromia called out. "Thunderwing's kicking it off!"

Springer and Whirl flew in in their alt modes, firing missiles down at the beast from above. Thunderwing's body disappeared behind a cloud of flames as missiles initiated its body, but even with the assault, they could still hear its chilling howl over the roar of the flames.

"Oh shut it!" Whirl yelled. "You sound like a dying protoforms!"

On the ground, Topspin and Twin Twist engaged Thunderwing directly. They drove around its thick legs, drilling into its feet and legs to at least knock it off balance, but even with the added assault of laser blasts, missiles and photon beams from the rest of the Wreckers and Valkyries, Thunderwing barely took any damage, if at all. Thunderwing growled and clapped its hands, creating another powerful shockwave that blew everyone away like a typhoon.

XXXXXX

The Predacons watched the Autobots valiantly battle Thunderwing in their very one-sided battle aboard their ship. No one said a word as they watched what had to be either the bravest or stupidest thing ever done in recent history.

"They're giving it their all." Tantrum said.

"For all the good that it's doing them." Razorclaw said. The Autobots had Optimus Prime down there, along with Elita-1, their goddess of victory and her Valkyries. Prime was many things, but stupid wasn't one of them. He wasn't the type to just recklessly throw soldiers at an unstoppable beast without at least a backup plan to fall back on. "Time to orbital barrage?"

"Thirty-eight kliks." Rampage said.

Razorclaw crossed his arms, debating something in his head. "Fine. Tantrum, mobilize two assault teams. Do what you can in the time available, but one we reach the main firing sequence, pull out."

"Understood."

'Let's see if you have anything up your sleeve, Prime.' Razorclaw thought, turning back to the monitor. 'I don't want cracking Cybertron in half hanging over my head.'

XXXXXX

"… _Can't hold it! It just keeps coming!"_

" _Pointblank-agh! Go…go! Before…"_

"… _Further tactical resources currently unavailable."_

'It's happening again.' Optimus thought angrily. Those screams were exactly the same as that time, when the sky was bright with flames and the air full of the agonized screams of friend and foe. 'Whatever we do, whatever we throw at it just isn't enough!'

"Prime, I may have found something."

Optimus looked towards Jetfire. "You've decrypted the files?"

"No, I gave up on that. I've been working with the Technobots on analyzing its power source." He pressed a button on the console and brought up a holo-display of pinkish-magenta colored energon. "The so-called Ore-13 contains radically unstable elemental matter. The more Thunderwing draws upon its fissionable core, the greater the obverse catalytic reaction."

"In plain Cybertronian please?" Elita-1 sighed.

"Right, sorry. The source is feeding upon itself. It's only really suitable for short, intense hits. The greater the effort, the faster its' consumed." She explained. "Therefore, we need to engage-big time!"

"With what, Jetfire?" Optimus yelled. "With what!"

Outside in the ruins of civilization, the Wreckers and Valkyries were fighting as hard as they could with everything that they had, but their assault was watering down. Thunderwing's ionization of the atmosphere wreaked havoc on their targeting systems and guided projectiles, resulting in them using only fire and forget missiles and rockets. Elita-1 and Chromia were at the forefront of the assault, directing the battle from afar while Springer was with his Wreckers fighting Thunderwing themselves.

"We're throwing everything at that thing and we're barely slowing it down." Chromia growled, firing her heat seeking missiles at the beast. "We'll get taken out by the solar radiation before it gets a chance to touch us."

"Just hang in there, Chromia. Optimus will figure something out with the others." Elita-1 said.

In the center of the chaos, Springer and Firestar were attacking Thunderwing with the Wreckers, who were slowly being pushed back by Thunderwing's slow advance.

"Damn it!" Springer said, feeling his nav-systems start going haywire. "My shields are at nine percent. The radiation's going to screw us over in a few minutes."

"Springer, pull back! We'll cover you." Broadside said, firing his ion cannons at Thunderwing's face.

Thunderwing roared and rushed forward at Broadside, punching him so hard in the chest that the large mech was sent flying nearly ten feet back before crashing into a metal spire. Thunderwing then raised its arms and shot pale green bursts of energy at the Autobots, forcing them to back off. Firestar, who was going to attend to Broadside, heard a hissing sound coming from the cracks in the ground and realized what they were.

"Those are microwave bursts!" Firestar exclaimed and started running. "The area is full of gas pockets. They'll-"

Her fears became reality as the ground under them exploded in a massive plume of green flames that reached 20 feet into the air. Almost a mile of solid ground was uprooted by the exploding gas pocket and the flames could be seen for miles in all directions. The Autobots were blasted away, and Firestar hit the ground head first before sliding along the rocky terrain. She didn't get up.

"Firestar!" Springer flew in to extract her, but Thunderwing leapt up and smacked him back down into the ground and kicked his helicopter form away. Springer transformed in mid-air and fired his twin cannons at it, but Thunderwing just shrugged off his attacks and blasted him in the chest with a jet of white hot flames.

When Thunderwing turned back to Firestar, Chromia and Elita-1 were standing over their friend. Thunderwing opened its mouth and released a rapid-fire barrage of plasma blasts at the femmes. Elita-1 brought up a TK barrier to deflect the blasts, which hit her shields with tremendous explosive force. She gave Chromia an opening to carry Firestar away while she handled Thunderwing's assault.

"Come on, Optimus, hurry up." Elita-1 muttered before waving her arm and causing three metal spikes to shoot up from the ground under Thunderwing.

Thunderwing didn't even pay her attack any attention when it shot one last plasma blast at the ground in front of Elita-1, blasting her off her feet and sent her sprawling across the ground. It advanced towards her, but a barrage of energy fire from the west made it pause. Shooting from the hills were two assault teams of Decepticons, all firing at Thunderwing with everything they had on hand.

"Cons?" Chromia grunted. "Where did they…?"

"Must be a battleship somewhere watching us." Firestar groaned. "Figured that taking out Thunderwing was more important than roasting us."

The combined assault of the Autobots and Decepticons on Thunderwing created explosions that were like twinkling lights in the distance from where Optimus was standing. He and over a dozen Overcharge drones reached the surface in an elevator lift. Prime himself was decked out with shoulder cannons, a pair of plasma rifles and wrist mounted laser emitters.

"Dogfight, are we ready?" Optimus asked the young Autobot, who was the one who miraculously reprogrammed the Overcharge units.

"Almost, sir…ready!" Dogfight gave the all clear and ran back to the elevator shaft. "Good luck sir!"

"Overcharge units, move in!" Prime commanded.

The drones charged ahead, firing their ion cannons at Thunderwing. Their additional missile pods and rocket launchers slammed into Thunderwing's body with enough force to rattle even Devastator in their intensity. The drones didn't let up, and to Prime's amazement, the beast appeared to be staggering back from the powerful assault.

" _Prime, I'm reading a massive spike in catalytic flux. The Overcharge drones, en masse, are hurting it!"_ Jetfire reported from the Nexus.

Thunderwing stumbled back and waved a hand blindly, releasing an energy wave at the encroaching Decepticon forces, wiping out a quarter of them, but a group of flyers still dropped bombs on its shoulders. Roadbuster flanked it and began peppering its back with armor piercing shells that exploded against its armor, causing it to howl and double over in pain.

XXXXXX

'Primus, they're actually doing it.' Razorclaw thought astonished. "Rampage, time to barrage?"

"We're almost as the firing sequence threshold. If we want to abort, it has to be soon." Rampage said.

Razorclaw looked up at the battle. The combined firepower of the Autobots and Decepticons were managing to slow Thunderwing down by the grace of some divine power, but as he looked at the clock, they weren't making a lot of progress quick enough. He dug his claws into his forearms to keep from pacing like an agitated lion.

"Sound the withdrawal. Once both squads are aboard, pull us back to minimum safe distance and raise shields." He reluctantly ordered. 'Sorry, Cybertron. We'll miss you.'

XXXXXX

Thunderwing gave an engine-like grumble from its chest as it began feeling exhaustion take over. Its limbs felt heavier, and the glow in its eyes dimmed slightly. Even still, its power was still more than enough to fight off its enemies.

The Overcharge drones continued their assault on it, but Thunderwing swatted them aside, smashing them apart with its bare hands. The powerful drones easily crumbled under its strength and were wiped out in seconds. Seeing the other Autobots nearby still recovering, it opened its mouth and began charging up for another energy sphere attack.

Elita-1 leapt into the air, carrying a massive stone pillar in the air with her telekinesis. Focusing on Thunderwing, she threw the pillar right on top of its head just before it could fire its attack, and Thunderwing was engulfed in another powerful explosion that rattled the earth. Elita-1 hit the ground and covered her face as dust and debris flew everywhere.

Thunderwing could still be seen through the flames, but it was moving even slower than before. It focused its hate filled eyes on Elita-1 and stomped toward her.

"Thunderwing!"

Optimus approached Thunderwing, focusing all his weapons on its body and opened fire. Ion bursts, plasma blasts and photon beams. He didn't halt his assault even as Thunderwing stalked towards him.

"Understand that we are all culpable here. All participants in the same tragedy that is Cybertron. True, we were so caught up in our war that we didn't notice until the damage was done. True that you saw it coming, but your reaction was misguided at best, inflammatory at worst." Optimus said to Thunderwing, his voice barely audible over the loud noise of his weapons firing. Smoke began rising from his ion cannons but he didn't stop even for a second. "This planet-or what's left of it-remains a testament to our shortsightedness, a reminder that in war, there are no real winners."

Thunderwing could not access its weapons and it could barely move. Only its burning hatred spawned from its previous life kept it going.

"Part of me feared coming back here, but in truth, I never left. At long last, I can confront my own demons, acknowledge once and for all my fallibility, my accountability and let the healing begin." He continued. "There will be no retreat, no half measures. I will end the threat you pose to the universe or die trying!"

Thunderwing was right on top of it now, wreathed in flames as it glared down at him. It raised its arms, joints creaking with each movement, preparing to crush Prime under its mighty fists. Suddenly, it stopped, the glow fading from its face and its body halting mid-strike. Thunderwing was frozen.

XXXXXX

"Abort firing sequence!"

Just a second away from launching the torpedoes, Rampage hit the button and stopped the countdown. Once they all saw Thunderwing come to a stop, the Decepticons all cheered at their victory against the beast that ran them from their home. Everyone was glad that they didn't need to resort to destroying their planet, especially Razorclaw.

"Thank Mortilus it's over." Razorclaw breathed. Taking a moment to gather himself, he turned to the pilots. "Take us back to Charr. We're done here."

As the Thanatos flew away from Cybertron, Razorclaw gave his former home one last look and nodded a silent gesture of gratitude to Optimus Prime. 'You escaped total annihilation, Prime. We all did.'

XXXXXX

The Autobots who weren't seriously wounded by Thunderwing crowded around the beast's inert form. The Technobots ran in-depth diagnostic scans along its body while the Wreckers stood on guard in case it moved again. Optimus and Elita-1 stood on the side watching their progress.

"Well?" Prime asked.

"No sign of even the most basic molecular activity." Jetfire announced and sighed, his wide shoulders sagging. "It's over."

"Is it? Who knows what damage Thunderwing did wherever Bludgeon sent him? And then there's this Ore-13...where did that come from?" Optimus looked at his troops with a hard expression. "I want answers, Jetfire, sooner rather than later. Because as bad as this has been…I fear there's the potential here for things to get much, much worse!"

XXXXXX

"So Ore-13 does have its drawbacks." Ember hummed. "Go figure."

She heard whispers of the events that transpired on Cybertron. Thunderwing truly was magnificent, and the chaos he caused would be talked about for years to come. Bludgeon did his part very well.

"Yes, Ember. Its power is its own weakness. Even something as powerful as Thunderwing cannot escape its effects.' Bludgeon said.

"But it can still be used for other purposes." Ember smirked. "It can be refined into an even purer form. Thunderwing is not completely lost to us, Bludgeon. Thanks to you, the seeds have been planted. We're making progress."

"I am at your service, Ember. It's all done for the cause." He said.

"Though you were cutting it close with your recent alterations." She turned away from the window to study Bludgeon's new form.

The polydermal grafting process had been a success, though Bludgeon came very close to losing his sanity like Thunderwing. His body, once little more than a walking mess of shattered armor and exposed circuits, was now brand new and polished. He stood tall and proud, with gold and maroon armor sporting pieces of his newly reformatted alt mode. His face now looked like a pristine white skull with two dark chasms for eyes. Bludgeon had achieved what Thunderwing failed to do, and now he was reaping the rewards.

"I allowed my faith in the gods to take hold, and it has guided me through the veil. I'd say it well pretty well, otherwise." Bludgeon said. Ember smiled and turned back to the window.

"We have completed the first step of the Expansion." Ember said. "Now we must focus on obtaining one final piece of the puzzle before commencing with our plans."

"What do you want me to do, Ember?"

"You can hang back on this one, Bludgeon. I'll be entering the fray in order to acquire the Decepticons' pet executioner…Sixshot."

XXXXXX

Once everything was said and done, Optimus had to return to Terra and oversee his team again. After saying his goodbyes to Elita-1 and Springer (who wanted him to say hello to Arcee for him) he boarded one of the smaller transport shuttles to take him back to Terra, and the war he put on the backburner for the moment.

He sat in the command chair looking tired and feeling emotionally worn out, but he also felt like a massive weight had been lifted off his shoulders. Staring Thunderwing in the eyes and admitting his guilt, as well as what he planned to do was uplifting in a sense. He did everything he could to preserve Cybertron, and even now he will still seek for a way to revive their planet. It was the least he could do after putting it through so much strain.

"Prime, you've got a message from Jetfire." One of the officers reported.

"Put him through." He said. Jetfire's face appeared on the holo-display next to him. "Anything?"

" _Plenty. Seems Bludgeon had been de-archiving some kind of sealed work-in-progress cache. I'm still working on its point of origin."_ Jetfire said. _"Anyway, he stumbled across something called Regenesis."_

"Regenesis?"

" _A kind of cosmic seeding initiative. We're missing a lot of why's and wherefores-I suspect Bludgeon deleted a lot of it himself-but ultimately the trail led him to planet Terra."_

Optimus sat up in his seat. "Terra?"

" _Yes, a planet that's been the source of a lot of strange activities lately."_ Jetfire frowned. _"Coincidence?"_

"I'm not a great believer in it." Optimus said, his mind racing.

This was just one more thing to put that little blue planet on the map. If this was true, then it might be the reason why there was energon on this planet at all. But he never found anything else aside from the regular energon they consumed. Perhaps there was something he wasn't seeing. So many things were happening on that world, and Optimus feared that humanity won't remain hidden from the wider universe for much longer at this rate.

'But that is a worry for another time.' Optimus thought and leaned back in his chair. 'For now, I must go back to my team. I must go…home.'

* * *

 **Managed to get this out before New Years! The next chapter will be coming up in the new year, so happy holidays to everyone and thanks for reading. Be**

 **sure to leave a review and have a Happy New Year. Hopefully in 2019 Trump will choke on a carrot stick or something. Not holding my breath on him dying.**


	19. Empowered

Chapter 19-Empowered

Nightshade watched intently as Dreadwing and Skyquake moved Megatron's CR chamber into place. Knockout was standing close by, ready to take action if Megatron's condition worsened during the transfer. He checked the datapad and was pleased to see that his leader was stable.

"All vitals are green, lieutenant." He said.

Nightshade nodded. "Activate the chamber."

Knockout pressed a button on the small console and energon flowed from the storage tanks through clear tubes into the stasis pod. The liquid inside the pod began to glow, bathing Megatron's body in a soft light as he was slowly healed. Once it was done, Nightshade allowed her body to relax.

With the constant attacks on Decepticon Island and the damages they were still repairing from Sapientia's assault, in addition to the Insecticons, Nightshade thought it prudent that Megatron be allowed to heal in another location. Namely their secondary operations bunker in Nebrask that Starscream formerly operated out of. It was situated right next to a fresh energon source and has yet to be compromised.

"So what now?" Skyquake asked.

"Now we wait." Knockout said, doing another look over Megatron's vital statistics. "I've already fixed his more serious injuries, and the CR chamber can do the rest. Rest and energon are what he needs now. Let's just pray that no one comes knocking."

"Good, because I am sick of all these surprises. We can barely get anything done with the entire word being thrown at us." Dreadwing said. "Lieutenant, has there been any word from Soundwave?"

Nightshade shook her head, biting her lip. Soundwave hadn't been heard since he deployed on that mission to investigate the mysterious cybertronians moving in on their territory. The Nemesis' computers couldn't locate him, Ravage or Laserbeak. Even Buzzsaw couldn't feel his presence anymore. The official story she gave to the others was that Soundwave was on an extended recon mission to investigate OZ's movements, but his continued absence would embolden Starscream to make a power play. Soundwave's disappearance could mean one of two things: he, Laserbeak and Ravage were dead, or they were incapacitated and unable to call for help. And anyone who could take out those three alone was dangerous.

'Speaking of which…' Nightshade turned to Knockout. "Knockout, where's Starscream?"

Knockout scowled, slightly insulted that she would think he would know where that troublesome Seeker was. They only shared a few drinks while chatting about Starscream's "tiny" dreams of grandeur and that was all! And it stung even more because he actually _did_ know where Starscream was, but was forced to cover for him…again. Damn it.

"The Seekers are out scouting for energon in the mid-west. Starscream didn't want to sit around idly while our glorious leader was fighting for his life, after all." Knockout said. It wasn't a total lie-the Seekers were always pulling recon duty in search for energon or stasis panels.

Nightshade narrowed her eyes at him. Starscream was off on a lot of "recon" missions lately, and only half of those missions bore fruit. But the mech himself never seemed too disappointed to come back empty-handed. She preferred to have a closer eye on him with Megatron's recovery in such a critical stage, but she only had Buzzsaw on hand, and he wasn't very…stealthy compared to Laserbeak. Sending Songbird was out of the question.

'What are you planning, Starscream?' Nightshade thought.

XXXXXX

Later that day, when everyone else was preoccupied with other things, Knockout took a ground bridge to a remote area in the state of Ozark. He drove a few miles into the rocky area before releasing an encoded pulsewave that only he and the Seekers knew. It only took a few seconds to get a response in the form of Thundercracker and Skywarp appearing before him.

"Knockout?' Thundercracker blinked. "What are you doing here?"

"What do you think?" Knockout replied rudely. "We've just got Megatron hooked up to his CR chamber inside the secondary bunker and you three morons didn't show up for added secutiy!"

The two Seekers traded glances and Skywarp stepped forward, "Look, Knockout, sorry we weren't there, but we were a little busy."

"Busy? Doing what? The only thing you Seekers do is fly in circles, lazing around and getting your ass handed to you by Skyfire!" The medic hissed. The Seekers had never seen Knockout this angry before. "I had to cover your sorry tails again by lying to Nightshade. Lying! Do you know how hazardous to my health that is? Now tell me where Starscream is so I can shove my drill up his-"

" _Knockout,"_ Starscream called over the private comm-channel. " _It would be beneficial to all of us if you'd stop being so damn hysterical."_

"Don't tell me to stop being hysterical! You'd be freaking out too if you lied to Nightshade's face. What are you doing out here?"

Starscream was silent and for a moment Knockout thought he was being ignored. Then the air commander said, _"I suppose it wouldn't hurt to show you. Bring him in."_

Skywarp teleported Knockout and Thundercracker into their little hideout-which was basically a tapped out energon mine repurposed into a private spot for Starscream and those loyal to him. The mine itself was inside a cave the Cons had dug out to get the energon and it had two blast doors covering the entrance camouflaged to look like the surrounding terrain. The large doors were strong enough to withstand a (single) blast from Megatron's fusion cannon-just in case the big man came knocking.

The doors creaked open to allow the two seekers and medic entry, and Knockout was greeted by the unwieldy sight of a driller fixed into the ground mainly used for mining energon, he had procured the vehicle for them after in secret but he wondered what the thing was doing out here of all places.

"What is all this?" Knockout asked. "Are you seriously digging for energon here? Underneath your own feet?"

"Yup." Skywarp grinned.

"Please, Skywarp, you're stupid but not glitched. If there was energon here, you would've detected it by now."

"In the case of normal baseline energon, yes, we would have found it already." Starscream strolled into the little cave they called home away from home looking happy as he can be. "But we're not dealing with normal energon."

Knockout gave him a questioning look and Starscream took out the source of his pleasure from his thigh compartment. It was an energon crystal, but instead of the normal blue color, it was glowing bright pink/magenta.

"What is that?"

"No clue," Thundercracker said. "We found this thing in a small cluster mixed together with an energon vein. We don't know what it is, other than being some form of mutated energon."

"But it's special Knockout." Starscream grinned. "This energon is the key to snuffing out Megatron once and for all!"

"Don't tell me you plan on using that yourself." Knockout exclaimed. "Starscream, you don't even know what this energon can do. It could just be some new form of Tox-En that looks prettier!"

"Knockout, Knockout, must you have such a narrow vision?" Starscream sighed. "If you must know, I have already gauged the energon in a test engine, and let me tell you," He gave a wicked smirk. "The results were impressive."

Knockout was handed a test engine by Thundercracker. Its fuel compartment was already full of the processed mystery energon, and he looked at the power gauge. He was surprised to see that the meter was well above its built-in limits. Something that should be impossible.

"What in Solomus's name?" Knockout whispered.

"Amazing isn't it? This energon-this ultra energon-is the key to our success!" Starscream said and held the energon crystal in tightly in his hand like it was Prima's Sword of Judgment. "All I need to do…is use it!"

XXXXXX

Skyfire flew over the northern states of Osea at Mach 2 speeds, looking like a green blur against the clear blue sky. Attached to her wing was Comettor, her constant companion who helped navigate the area for her while she was focused on flying. Today it was just a recon flight, nothing too strenuous. Comettor was glad that they checked the flight routes of the Osean Air Force before going out this time. Almost getting into dogfights with three F-16s during their training exercise. That incident caused a lot of headaches that day.

Comettor was taken out of his thoughts when his sensors detected something. "Skyfire, I've got a bogey on our tail, and its moving fast."

"And ID on it?"

"No, and I can barely track it." Comettor said. "Here it comes!"

A red blur shot past Skyfire faster than she could process. She nearly lost balance but quickly stabilized herself and transformed, hovering in place.

"The hell was that?" Skyfire exclaimed.

"No idea, it was moving too fast for me." Comettor said, still tracking their new arrival. "It's circling back around!"

Skyfire wasn't having this time and took out her particle cannon, taking aim at the fast aircraft. As it got closer, now moving at slower speeds, Skyfire saw its red and silver color scheme and recognized the flyer.

"Starscream?"

Starscream transformed to bipedal mode and stopped in front of his former comrade, smirking arrogantly at her.

"Hell, Skyfire."

"Fancy running into you like this, Screamer." Skyfire said cautiously. Something was different about Starscream, but she couldn't put her finger on it. Was it the eye color?

"It's a small planet, Skyfire. Especially for us Seekers. Granted, you're not a Seeker anymore, are you?" Starscream sneered.

"You're right, I'm not one anymore. Thanks for pointing that out, captain obvious." She replied. "Are you still sore about that? Bugger that was millions of years ago!"

"You know our creed! Seekers are loyal only to themselves and you betrayed us to join the Autobots without a second thought. And you have the nerve to call me a coward!" Starscream rolled his neck. "You've always been an ace flyer, Skyfire, but now I've got the advantage on you. One that's going to help me kill Megatron!"

Starscream boosted at her and Skyfire could barely react to his movements as he closed the distance between them and punched her in the face. He was already in mid-transformation when she raised her particle cannon and had flown around her, switching back to bipedal mode and kicking her in the back.

"What's the matter, Skyfire? Am I took quick for you?" Starscream taunted.

Skyfire transformed and fired two missiles at Starscream, who just grinned and flew away, already outpacing the projectiles before they can properly lock onto him. Starscream transformed again and shot the missiles down with his arm cannons. When the smoke cleared, he lost sight of Skyfire.

"Huh?"

An elbow slammed into the back of his head, and Skyfire pushed him forward to unleash her particle cannon on him at point blank range, engulfing his body in smoke and fire. At this distance, the intense particle bursts would've melted metal in seconds. But to Skyfire's surprise, Starscream was completely unharmed throughout it all, aside from being slightly scorched.

Starscream looked back at her and grinned. "My turn."

He flanked Skyfire and slammed into her back, pushing her at high speeds towards the nearest mountain in a death spiral, gaining speed every second.

"This is for all the torment and slag you gave me in the past! I will no longer be anyone's slave!" Starscream roared. "I am Starscream! Rightful ruler of the Decepticons and the universe!"

Starscream waited until they were close enough to the mountain before disengaging from Skyfire and used the slipstream from their descent to put more pressure on her body, slamming her into the mountainside with a deafening boom that rattled for miles. Starscream glared down at the crater Skyfire's body made and sneered.

"When you see my sister in hell, tell I said frag you." He growled and flew off in his jet mode.

Inside the crater where Skyfire lay, Comettor crawled out of the hole and fell onto his back. He was able to avoid the worst of the crash, but he could still feel his frame rattling from the impact. He was definitely hurt, but not as much as Skyfire. She was completely unconscious and didn't look good at all.

"Comettor to the Ark," He rasped. "We need help. Skyfire's hurt and she's in really bad shape!"

XXXXXX

Starscream returned to his hideout as a triumphant warrior, landing at the doors and transforming with a dramatic flair. Thundercracker, Skywarp and Knockout were there, and he gave them all a grin.

"I just buried Skyfire ten feet into a mountain." He said.

"Yes! I knew you could do it, Starscream!" Skywarp cheered and clapped his commander on the shoulder.

"Taking out Skyfire is impressive." Thundercracker grinned. His excitement was no less evident than Skywarp's, but was more subdued. "You snuff out her Spark?"

"No, the energon was wearing off by then, unfortunately." Starscream replied. "But the power this ultra-energon provides…it's amazing! Not even the mighty Skyfire cannot stand against me!"

Knockout stood off to the side, not looking as excited as his fellow Cons. Starscream noticed the medic's unusual silence and strolled over to him. "What's the matter, Knockout? Mad that I get to try it first? You're welcome to try some now if you'd like. It'd do wonders for your ungodly fighting skills."

"No thanks, I'll stick with the low electron variant." Knockout said dryly. "I admit this ultra-energon is powerful, but it has side effects."

"Not this again." Starscream groaned.

"Don't tune me out, Starscream!" Knockout held up the test engine, which was running a lot slower than earlier. "Ultra-energon may be powerful, but once it wears off. You'll be left in even worse shape than before you took it. The engine is barely moving now. The massive power drainage can be crippling to the point of paralysis, maybe even stasis lock. Can you imagine how dangerous that would be if it happened in the middle of a battle?"

Thundercracker gave the energon a look of scorn, his attitude having done a complete turnaround after hearing this. "I knew this was too good to be true."

"Knockout, assume that I would not already be finished before the energon wears off." Starscream said slowly. "My enemies will already be dead long before such a thing can happen."

Knockout shook his head. He couldn't believe Starscream was this foolish. Actually…yeah, he could believe it.

"So what now, Starscream?" Skywarp asked. "The trial run was a success so…do we get a taste?"

"Not yet, Skywarp. If all three of us take it at once, then we'll run out." Starscream grinned. "Besides, I think it's time we had some real fun with it."

XXXXXX

Prowl and Ratchet listened to Comettor's report on the surprise attack that laid Skyfire out while the femme rested within the CR chamber. She suffered severe injuries, including a broken spinal strut, a severe cranial fracture, multiple fractures along her frame and a broken arm. Skyfire had been unconscious since they brought her back.

"It was unreal, Prowl. Starscream was like a totally different mech." Comettor said. "He was so much faster than Skyfire, and stronger too. He even took a couple of shots from Skyfire's particle cannon to the face and didn't even flinch!"

"That's not possible," Ratchet frowned. "Starscream is a good flyer, but he's not that strong. To injure a mech Skyfire's size with ease is…unthinkable."

"But it did happen, and now we have another problem on our hands." Prowl said. "Comettor, was there anything unusual about Starscream? Any sign of physical augmentation or power link he was drawing energy from?"

"None that I could see. But his eyes were a different color, purple. It's not much, but that's the only difference I can tell you."

"I see." Prowl muttered, rubbing his chin. "Rest up and recover, Comettor. I'll take it from here."

Prowl left the medibay, where Ironhide was waiting out in the hallway. He walked in lie with Prowl down the hall and after a minute or two they got down to the matter at hand.

"Starscream gets a power boost and then wastes Skyfire like she was nothing." Ironhide said. "So, why is Skyfire still alive? I know that Screamer hates her with a passion."

""This was probably just a test run to see what he was capable of with his new powers. If it were anything more, we'd be one less Autobot today." Prowl said. They entered the bridge, where Sparkplug and Roll Bar were managing things. "Comettor said that Starscream's eyes were purple, not his usual blue. I can only guess that energon is somehow involved with this sudden change."

Some races believed that the eyes were the windows to the soul, but for Cybertronians, it was literal; thanks to a complex network of internal apertures and diaphragrams, your optics were illuminated by your Spark. And of course, the converse was true. There was a belief among Cybertronians that you could tell what kind of energon a bot was drinking based on their optic color. Of course, this was an urban myth-power lines made in a certain color mixed with a certain shade of optical sensors and shutters, determined what color your optics were, regardless of energon. This was put into question with the development of red energon, which changed the bot's eye color and gave them hyperspeed. Obviously Starscream's new firepower had to be attributed to some kind of special energon he was consuming.

"The only way we'll ever find out is if Starscream pops out again," Ironhide said. "And I doubt that's going to be easy."

"The only way we'll ever find out is if Starscream pops out again," Ironhide said. "And I doubt that's going to be easy."

" **Alert: anomaly detected."** Teletran-1 droned.

"I stand corrected." Ironhide hummed.

"What is Teletran-1?" Prowl asked.

" **Unknown encoded message transmitted. Scans indicate that is it a pair of coordinates."**

Prowl and Ironhide traded a glance. "Can you find out where those coordinates are pointing?"

" **A far off point in the region of Nebrask. It appears to be nowhere near any human settlements."** Teletran-1 said.

Ironhide frowned. "Do we have any units in that area?"

" **Autobot Arcee and Bumblebee are the only units in the area."** Teletran-1 answered. " **They are with human adolescents Kevin Koss and Penelope Pincer."**

"Have them deposit the children somewhere before investigating the area." Prowl said.

"Think this is a coincidence?" Ironhide asked.

"I don't believe in coincidences." Prowl said. "Let's wait and see what comes our way. We don't have enough information to make a proper assessment of the situation."

Prowl was already thinking of possible outcomes to this new development, while a deeper part of his brain lamented Prime not being here to handle the bulk of the work load.

XXXXXX

Arcee and Bumblebee were driving down the freeway in the state of Nebrask, with Kevin, Penny and Emulator sitting inside the pink Autobot's alt mode playing an incredibly boring around of I SPY, and it was Emulator's turn, the only one who didn't look like she was about to die from boredom.

"I spy with my little eye, something yel-"

"Bumblebee, Emulator. It's Bumblebee. Just like the last four times." Penny sighed. "Really, is that the best you can think of?"

"Would you prefer that I do Arcee next?" Emulator asked.

"Just stop. You guys are boring me, and I'm the one driving." Arcee sighed.

"Well, there's nothing to see out here except the bloody road and a few trees. Can't even see past the damn mountain ridge." Penny huffed.

"Why don't you play around with your PDA, Penny?" Kevin suggested, balancing a tiny flame on his fingertip.

"No signal," Penny sighed, flipping the device in her hand. "Arcee, are all recon missions this boring?"

"Sometimes, if you're unlucky enough. The others were just lucky to get caught up in crazy stuff every time they went out with us. If you ask Gina, she'd gladly trade you for the boring recon after what she and the twins had been through." Arcee replied.

"We usually count moments like these a blessing." Bumblebee said. "If we get through a mission without being hunted, shot at, blown up, drowned, punched or captured without once, it's a personal win for the Autobots."

"Great, we're the B-team then. Even when she's not trying Gina gets all the action." Penny huffed and crossed her arms.

Kevin smiled and patted her shoulder. "No need to go looking for trouble where there isn't any, boo. We've had enough excitement after that Inhuman debacle."

"Arcee, I'm getting an alert from Teletran." Bumblebee said. "I think its coordinates."

"I got it too." Arcee said and her dashboard opened up to reveal an advanced console that generated a holographic map before the children. "Hmm, it doesn't know who sent it."

"Prowl wants us to check it out since we're in the area." Bumblebee said.

"Finally! No more stupid car games!" Penny cheered.

"Aww, but I was enjoying our game." Emulator pouted.

After driving another mile, the Autobots left the highway and went into a nearby forest. Carefully navigating through the trees, they reached a small clearing where the coordinates were located. Kevin, Penny and Emulator got out of Arcee and approached the metal hatch sitting there in the ground.

"That definitely doesn't look like it belongs here." Kevin remarked. Arcee and Bumblebee transformed and walked over to the hatch.

"Stand back, kids, we don't know if this thing is rigged." Arcee warned. "Bee, can you get a red on any booby traps?"

Bumblebee knelt down near the hatch and pressed his audio receptor to the ground. Enhancing his audio array, he tapped the ground a few times and used his sensors to track the vibrations through the ground. It was a little trick he learned from the more experienced Autobot scouts back on Cybertron to detect buried explosives or other devices; using sound waves in tandem with their audio sensors as a form of echolocation to detect anything near the surface. And from what he heard, this hatch leads to something much bigger than he thought.

Arcee noted the look on his face. "What did you find?"

"It's some kind of underground bunker, and it's outfitted with a lot of tech."

"Decepticon?"

"Most likely."

Arcee inspected the hatch. The metal was only a few days old, so it hadn't been there for very long. Whatever its purpose was, it was special, and given their lack of materials, the Decepticons wouldn't have built this if there wasn't some important reason to do so.

"I can check it out for you." Emulator offered.

"Not possible. The Cons like to layer these places with traps. Primus knows what they have down there." Bumblebee sighed.

Kevin caught Penny's expectant glance and frowned. She nudged his shoulder a bit and whined a little, not letting up as she gave him a cute pout. Kevin shook his head and decided to take the plunge. "Penny and I can scout the place for you."

"No way," Arcee said firmly. "Too risky. If they're any Cons in there, we can't keep you safe."

"Then I suppose you guys can use your holomatters, then. Because there's no possible way for the bunker to have precautions for that too." Penny said.

She caught them there. The Decepticons were very thorough in making places inaccessible for Autobots to sneak into places they don't want anyone snooping. Countermeasures would be in place, mainly those of Cybertronian nature. Holomatter avatars would be detected in the heartbeat and alert the entire Decepticon squad, and Emulator's Spark signature would be detected as well before she even got off the ladder. But if they were made to repel cybertronian intruders, chances were that humans would be able to sneak in so long as there were no security cameras.

"Fine, you two can go in." Arcee relented. She held up a finger to stop Penny from cheering. "But at the first sign of trouble above or below ground, this little adventure is over."

"Got it." Kevin nodded.

Bumblebee pulled the hatch open and extended a grappling hook into the opening. Arcee gave the two children comm-patches to maintain contact and glares with scanners. Once they were ready, Kevin went down first, and Penny followed after him. Once he was inside, Kevin generated an energy sphere in his hand to provide some light.

"This place is huge." Kevin noted. "We should probably stay close together so nothing bad catches us off guard."

"I'm flattered, Kevin, but I can take care of myself." Penny reached into her bag and pulled out a small crossbow and a couple of arrows-real arrows with pointed tips and everything.

Kevin blinked at her weapon of choice. "Is that a-"

"Yup! A crossbow, with personalized crossbow bolts to go with it!" Penny grinned. "Gina helped me make it. What you see here is a pistol-class crossbow with a magnetic rail loading mechanism for ease of reloading and composite carbon fiber, Kevlar and titanium-reinforced fiberglass torsion bow with a polypropylene cable assembly."

She failed to tell him that the bolts were custom made by Gina as well-each one was tipped with its own special ammunition utilizing a four-sided quarrel type fletched bolt. Such ammunition included explosive warheads, diamond-toothed grapple hooks, sonic stunner bolts, taser bolts and knockout gas bolts. The ones she had with her now were the explosive bolts she brought along just in case something came up and she needed to pop someone for a quick getaway.

"It takes all that just to operate?"

"Nope. But it doesn't hurt to come prepared."

"…All right then." He shrugged and gave her the rundown. "We split up. Just point the scanner at anything and everything. The Bots will analyze the data later."

Penny took a deep breath and fingered her crossbow's grip. "Understood."

"And Penny," Kevin gave her a kiss on the cheek. "Be safe."

Penny watched Kevin walked down the hall, his flames the only source of light he had. Her flushed cheeks felt warm and her lips spread into a smile that threatened to split her face open. She pumped her fists in the air and jumped with joy. "Yes! Progress!"

XXXXXX

Starscream watched as the driller dug deeper into the ground. There was still more ultra-energon to be found if he wanted his plan to be successful. Megatron's death was close, but he had to play it off as the result of someone else…namely the Autobots.

"Starscream," Thundercracker walked up to him. "We've two Autobots at the bunker, Arcee and Bumblebee."

"Hmph, I was hoping for heavy hitters like Optimus Prime or Prowl." Starscream muttered. "But no matter. You and Skywarp head over to the bunker and…take care of the Autobots."

"What about the bunker?" The blue seeker asked, though he had a strong feeling on what the answer would be. "The ground won't be able to handle an airstrike on it."

"Alas, there are unaccounted casualties in war, ones that we do not foresee." Starscream gave a mocking sig. Then he glared at his subordinate. "Bury it."

XXXXXX

The bunker was so dark that Penny could barely see her own hands in front of her. She was using the flare as a light source, but that only helped a little bit. Penny clutched her crossbow tightly to her and cautiously walked down the massive cybertronian-sized hall, her tiny footsteps echoing throughout the area.

" _Penny, you doing okay?"_ Kevin asked through the radio.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She replied. "Not much to see here though. How about you?"

" _Same here. It's hard trying to find your way around when anything important is two stories above your head."_ Kevin said. " _I'm guessing you're having the same luck?"_

"Yea-wait, hold the phone." Penny stepped in front of a large pile of green, translucent pods that were haphazardly scattered across the floor. It took her a minute to realize that the pods were not scattered, but were connected to some tree-like rack. "I found a large rack or something. It's made of metal and has these weird pods hanging off the stem."

" _Anything in them?"_

"Not that I can see, but I think they were used in storage." Penny pointed her flare at the pods, seeing that all but one was open. "Wait, I found one that's closed. And it looks important…"

" _Penny wait! Arcee said not to touch anything!"_

"How can we get things done if we don't take risks?" Penny smiled. She felt around the pod for something, like a button or a level she could pull to open it. Luckily she found one and pressed it. "Aha! Got it!"

The pod popped open with a hiss and released a cloud of green smoke from being depressurized. Penny coughed and waved the smoke away to peek inside. Once the smoke cleared, the large object the pod was holding was revealed…a corpse.

"Ahh!" Penny screamed and scrambled back until she hit the wall.

" _Penny? What's wrong?"_ Kevin yelled. _"Did something happen? I'm comi-"_

"N-no, I'm fine." Penny gulped. "Stay where you are."

She slowly approached the pod. The corpse was nothing but bone having long since been decayed. She noticed that it was wearing a military officer's uniform, and judging from the amount of stars and ribbons on the front, it belonged to a high ranking military official. Penny forced herself to calm down and explained the situation to Kevin.

"I think I found something important." She muttered, recording everything she saw."

" _Penny, don't try to act tough. I know you're scared, so just-"_

"Stop it, Kevin. I said I'm fine. I-I can handle this." Penny gulped.

She walked through a narrow space in the wall near her, ignoring her crush's warnings to rendezvous back with him. Penny knew that if she stayed still for too long, the shock of finding a human corpse would catch up to her and she'd be a sobbing mess, so she kept on moving despite her mind telling her this was a big mistake. She wanted to prove to Kevin that she could be brave to, and she didn't need superpowers to do it.

XXXXXX

"Bored now." Emulator sighed.

"What's taking them so long?" Arcee said impatiently. "I'm getting a bad feeling here."

"How bad?" Asked Bumblebee.

"Like we're about to be-move!"

The two Autobots transformed and jumped apart to dodge the two missiles that hit where they were sitting. Emulator hid under a tree as she saw two fighter jets, one blue and one purple, soar overhead with a screeching howl. Thundercracker and Skywarp.

"Of all the times…" Bumblebee growled.

"We have to get them out." Arcee said as the Seekers dropped more bombs onto the forest. "They aren't attacking us, it's the bunker they're after."

"Autobots sighted, just as planned." Thundercracker said.

"Good. Let's give them hell!" Skywarp said.

Emulator tried to call Kevin and Penny as Arcee and Bumblebee shot at the Seekers to draw their attention. "Penny, Kevin, abort! Get out of there, now!"

" _What's going on?"_ Kevin asked.

"Two Seekers are trying to bury the bunker. You two need to make for the exit point!"

XXXXXX

"Got it." Kevin replied and started running back the way he came. He was thankful for having the foresight to leave scorch marks on the walls to act as his trail of breadcrumbs back to the entry point. "Penny, you get that?"

"Yeah, but I just need to check out one more thing." Penny said. She slid down a dirt mound and squeezed through a small opening between two large doors.

" _Damnit Penny! We don't have time for this, you need to leave now!"_

Penny tore off the comm-patch and placed it on the ground before heading inside the room. She hated making Kevin worry like this, but she was a girl who gave 120 percent into anything she did, no questions asked. Penny grunted as she finally got through the door, but froze stiff as she saw something standing in the center of the chamber. A towering silver goliath with bright red eyes that were staring right at her. A familiar face she never thought she'd see again.

It was Megatron.

XXXXXX

Arcee and Bumblebee swerved to avoid the bombs raining down on them from the Seekers flying overhead. They had leveled much of the surrounding forest with their air strikes, and it was only a matter of time before it caused serious damage to the bunker below.

"What are they doing?" Emulator asked, holding onto Arcee tightly so she wasn't flying around everywhere from the femme's crazy driving.

"Excavating." Arcee answered. "They'll continue bombing the lace until it all caves in. We've got to get the kids and-"

Arcee cut herself off as Skywarp appeared right above them, firing his laser cannons. Bumblebee transformed and shot at Skywarp, firing several laser blasts before managing to clip Skywarp's wing as the mech flew over him.

Arcee and Emulator took cover behind a tree to avoid Thundercracker's missiles. When Thundercracker got close enough, Emulator jumped out and threw out a flash grenade that blinded his sensors for a few seconds. Disoriented, he crashed into the trees and hit the ground nose first.

Arcee took out her energo-swords and walked over to the downed Seeker. "This is the part where I wish I had a big, ugly-"

A missile hit her in the chest and blasted her into the tree behind her. Thundercracker walked out of the dust cloud, his vision still blurry.

"Get fragged, pinkie." He growled and switched back to jet mode, flying away to regroup with Skywarp.

"Arcee!" Bumblebee and Emulator ran over to Arcee, who was lying still against the tree with a smoking hole in her chest where the missile hit her dead center. "Arcee, are you alright?"

"I'm still alive, if that's what you mean." Arcee coughed, groaning. Bumblebee helped her to her feet. "Just got caught off guard."

"You're losing your touch." Emulator joked.

"Shut up." Arcee looked up at the Seekers still dropping bombs. "They aren't coming back?"

"No. Looks like we aren't their prime target." Bumblebee said.

The ground shook violently from the endless amount of bombs and missiles, the natural foundations trembling violently until it became too much for the dirt and soil to handle. Emulator felt the ground start to shake and crumble.

"Scrap, it's happening!" Bumblebee exclaimed.

"Where are those two? We don't have time!" Arcee said.

XXXXXX

Penny had never had the chance to see Megatron up close. Aside from Nightshade, Lugnut and the other Cons at a distance, she only had a chance to see a quick glimpse of the Decepticon leader before Sara whisked her and Kevin away from the chaotic battle he initiated with her friends. She heard stories from Darren and Annie, who fought Megatron before, how strong he was, how scary he was. Penny knew that the Decepticons were terrifying all on their own, but she just thought that he was just another warlord hyped up by the Autobots, like every other despot in history.

But seeing him there, just a few feet in front of her, looming over her like a towering monolith, she now understood why the twins were so afraid of him. It was dark in the chamber, and the only thing she could see was the light of the CR chamber reflecting off his silver armor and his red eyes glowing as they glared down at her. Penny felt like a deer being stalked by a predatory cat, nowhere to run without being run down and eaten alive. This guy…he was on a completely different level.

Then the room began to shake and rocks and dirt began falling from the ceiling. Megatron vented steam from his nostrils and broke his gaze to look up the cracking infrastructure. When a boulder hit the ground inches from her foot, Penny knew it was time to leave and she ran back through the corridor.

Megatron remained where he was, even as the cave began falling around him.

At the entrance, Kevin was already climbing up the ladder, though he waited for Penny.

" _Kevin are you up yet?"_ Arcee asked.

"No, I'm still waiting for Penny! Is she up there with you?"

" _No, Kevin, come on up, we'll wait for her a little longer, but we don't have any more time!"_

Kevin climbed to the top of the hatch, where Arcee, Bumblebee and Emulator were waiting in vehicle mode. The area around them was shaking and sloping downwards into a growing ditch that threatened to consume them if they didn't leave immediately.

"Kevin, the bunker's falling apart, we can't wait any longer!" Bumblebee said.

"We're not leaving Penny!" Emulator said.

Arcee gave a frustrated sigh. "Kevin…"

"You can leave if you want, but I'm not leaving without her!" Kevin shouted. "She'll never leave me behind, and I'll never leave her!"

"That's the sweetest thing you've ever said about me, Kevin…"

"Penny!" Kevin and Emulator cried out as they ran over to the hatch and looked down to see the girl trying to climb the rope. "The shaft is filling up!"

The ground sunk even deeper and soon everyone began to lose their footing. Penny kept her eyes and mouth closed as a stream of dirt fell into the hatch, almost dragging her down as she struggled to climb back to the surface. The tree the rope was attached to was nearly uprooted, but Arcee was quick to push it back so that Penny could have some leverage.

Emulator held on to Kevin as he leaned into the hatch and held out his hand for Penny to grab. She stretched her arm as far as possible, grunting in exertion until she could feel his fingertips. After some struggling, they clasped hands and Kevin yelled for Emulator to pull. Penny was hauled out of the ditch and into Kevin's arms. Emulator dragged both of them into Bumblebee's alt mode. He and Arcee drove as fast as they could away from the growing pit which was once a lush forest.

XXXXXX

Thundercracker and Skywarp circled over the region they just carpet bombed. Nearly a kilometer of forest had been incinerated by the bombs, and then collapsed as the bunker underneath fell to the constant pressure being exerted on it. They were sure that it had been destroyed-along with Megatron.

"Not gonna lie, Thundercracker," Skywarp said. "That was extremely satisfying."

"Glad you feel that way, Skywarp, but you forgot the Nightshade is still around." Thundercracker said. "If she learns what he did here-"

"Don't worry so much! Starscream has this in the bag. Besides, the reward's worth the-huh?"

The pair saw something moving in the pit. They thought it was just more earth collapsing, but a powerful purple particle beam shot out of the pit straight up into the sky. Once it dissipated, the Seekers saw a large gunmetal grey form burst from the soft earth and emit a mighty roar that could be heard for miles.

"RRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

"It's Megatron!" Skywarp exclaimed. "Call up Starscream, we've got a problem!"

Megatron glared up at the Seekers, eyes burning with rage. "Traitors!"

Skywarp wasn't fast enough to evade the fusion blast Megatron fired at him. The beam tore apart the right side of his alt mode and he lost balance immediately. Pain blinded his senses as he dived to the ground, hitting the dirt nose first and skidding to a painful stop.

At the edge of the trench, Arcee and Bumblebee saw the gory display with a mixture of awe and fear.

"Is that…?" Kevin asked.

"Yes," Arcee said grimly. "Megatron. He's back."

"And he's mad as hell." Penny pointed out.

Megatron looked at Skywarp's broken form, then at Thundercracker, who wisely flew out of range for his own safety. He could try to shoot him down, but there was someone who was far more deserving of his ire.

"Starscream." He growled.

XXXXXX

In the Seeker's bunker, Grid, Starscream's Minicon, was waiting for his partner to charge up on ultra-energon. Starscream had just hit gold and was now in the CR chamber having the energon absorbed directly into his circuits, a more direct, but risky method of juicing up on energon.

"We didn't get him, boss," Grid said, his body caught in its usual twitching spasms. "Big M shot down Skywarp and he's calling you out."

" _Starscream! We've really done it this time!"_ Thundercracker's voice yelled from the console. _"Megatron's on a death run and we're all his targets. We need to-"_

"Stand and fight!" Starscream walked out of the CR chamber, his entire body emitting a dull purple glow. He cracked his neck and took a deep breath, feeling rejuvenated and strong, a euphoric feeling for one as deserving of this power as he was. "Of course he'd heal just as we try to bury him. No matter. I'm ready for him! No more scrounging around for energon, no more scrambling after the Autobots and their pets! This is our future, and I am its catalyst!"

He charged up his weapons and grinned. "Megatron is history. He just doesn't know it yet."

XXXXXX

Megatron climbed out of the trench and looked around for anyone else who needed a good thrashing. He was glad to finally be free of that dreamless limbo, but waking up to a human snooping around your feet and your soldiers trying to bury you didn't do his temper any favors. Only one mech was stupid enough to attempt such a thing.

"STARSCREAM!" He roared.

A ground bridge appeared and Nightshade and the rest of the Decepticons exited the vortex. Megatron curiously noted the addition of some new faces on the team, Dreadwing, Skyquake and Demolishor, and the lack of some older ones, namely Soundwave and Barricade. Nightshade went to go to his side, but he stopped her with a glare.

"Someone better tell me where Starscream is," He growled. "Or I will personally massacre every last one of you!" He turned his glare to Thundercracker. "Starting with you!"

Thundercracker gulped, weighing his options between loyalties to his brotherhood and facing imminent death at Megatron's hands. It wasn't hard to make the decision. He was just about to tell Starscream's location when he saw Starscream's jet mode shooting at them like a comet.

"Cowards, all of you!" Starscream yelled. His exhaust left a purple trail behind him as he shot over his enemies. "Megatron is nothing but argonized steel and polymer sinew, just like us. He is no god! He can be killed!"

Starscream fired two missiles at Megatron and the projectiles hit their mark, engulfing him in flames hot enough to melt a tank. Demolishor went to help his leader, but Nightshade stopped him. This was Megatron's fight.

Out of the flames, Megatron fired his fusion cannon repeatedly. Starscream, empowered by the ultra-energon, easily dodged the powerful blasts, laughing all the while. But one beam nicked his tail fin, and he realized that it wasn't worth getting shot down for his show boasting.

"How about we finish this on your level!" He cackled and transformed to robot mode, diving straight for Megatron at Mach 2 speeds.

A deafening boom filled the air as Starscream slammed into Megatron, punching him into the ground. The Seeker commander gave him no time to act as he grabbed Megatron's arm and threw him across the length of the trench in an amazing feat of strength. Megatron, battered and dirty, hit the slope of the trench with a deep thud, but his face remained stoic and unmoving.

"What's the matter, Megatron? Still tired from your beauty sleep?" Starscream taunted. He fired his laser cannons repeatedly at Megatron, bombarding him with laser bolts and armor piercing explosive shells that would tear through a weaker bot. "Thanks to ultra-energon, I have evolved beyond you! I am the future, and you, just like my sister, are the past. Reap what you sow you fool!"

Starscream didn't let up on his assault until he exhausted his shells. He bent over and vented a cloud of stem from his mouth to cool down his systems. But despite his exhaustion, he was smiling. He had done it, he had finally killed the mighty Megatron with his own two hands!

"That was intense," He panted. "You have no idea how long I've wanted to-"

Starscream froze. Megatron, dirty and slightly damaged from the onslaught of explosive fire, was standing up relatively unharmed. He got to his feet and rolled his shoulders, his eyes betraying the satisfaction he got from Starscream's horror.

"No prizes for guessing what comes next." Thundercracker muttered.

"N-no, you should be dead!" Starscream stammered. "This isn't how it was supposed to happen!"

"You are a disgrace, Starscream. You spend all this time planning, all this time scheming, and a simple power boots is your best plan of action, along with trying to bury me?" Megatron gave a scathing laugh, though his eyes showed his growing fury. "Pathetic. You couldn't even must the courage to kill me yourself when you had the opportunity!"

Megatron stalked towards Starscream, unsheathing his arm blade. "You've done us all a crime, Starscream. You've placed your own interests above those of the imperium. And that is an offense I cannot let go unpunished."

Starscream tried to back away and shifted into jet mode to fly away, but Megatron closed the distance between them in a flash. He grabbed Starscream's wings and threw him to the ground, slamming him against the dirt and forcing him to revert back to his robot mode. Starscream shifted his arm into his null ray, but Megatron's grabbed his arm and tore it off. Starscream wailed and clutched his sparkling stump.

"You've made an unwise decision, Starscream. But worry not, I intend to show you the error of your ways the best way possible," Megatron raised his blade. "Through pain."

He dashed forward and stabbed Starscream in the torso and slashed his arm bisecting the Seeker at the waist. Before his upper body could even fall, Megatron fired his fusion cannon and vaporized Starscream's left arm. Starscream fell to the ground in pieces, alive but in great pain. His work done, Megatron faced Grid, who was scrambling away from his partner's severed arm.

"W-wait, lord Megatron," Grid whimpered. "I had no idea what he was doing. I told him not to do it, but he wouldn't listen to me! You know how he is!"

"Yes," Megatron pointed his fusion cannon at the Minicon. "I do."

Grid had no time to scream as he was wiped from existence by Megatron's fusion blast. His death was quick, painless, and inconsequential to Megatron.

Nightshade chose this moment to step up to him. "Megatron…"

"Take his remains to the Nemesis," Megatron ordered stiffly. "Make sure that he remains alive. He, and his cohorts, need to stand trial for their crimes."

"Yes, sir." She nodded. She looked up and pointed at the Autobots. "What about them?"

Megatron looked up at the two Autobots. "Leave them be. We need to see to ourselves first."

Nightshade nodded as she and Dreadwing gathered Starscream's body parts. Skyquake cuffed Thundercracker and Skywarp was being dragged through the dirt by Demolishor. As his troops vanished into the ground bridge, Megatron gave the Autobots one last glare before entering the portal as it disappeared.

"That…was intense." Kevin breathed. His heart was pounding loudly in his chest.

"Y-you could say that again." Penny gulped. She was still holding onto Kevin and wasn't planning on letting go anytime soon. "What does this mean for us?"

"It means," Said Arcee. "That things are about to heat up again. And as usual, we're going to be stuck in the middle of it all."

"So what do we do now?" Bumblebee asked.

"Let's go home." She said. "We'll deal with this later."

The two Autobots drove away from the war torn forest with their exhausted passengers. With Megatron back in the game, things were definitely going to escalate very quickly. Unfortunately, they had no idea how fast things would heat up, nor of the ramifications of Starscream's discovery…of Ore-13.

* * *

 **The first update of the year! Let's start this year off with a Yang, people! You all know the routine, check out the official website for this series (directions to**

 **link are in my profile, because this site is so broken it can't even post website links properly) and be sure to leave a comment if you're new to Transformers**

 **Titan. Thanks for reading and Happy New Year!**


	20. Infiltration part 1

Chapter 20-Infiltration part 1

Megatron hated Terra. That was no secret, since he actively hated everything from the humans who breathed its air to the accursed dolems hiding in the bowels of the earth. It wouldn't be the first planet to earn his ire, but it certainly ranked high on his list. Everything he did on this world was almost always stonewalled by something, and half the time it wasn't even the Autobots!

Following his reawakening, Nightshade filled him in on what happened so far. Flamewar defected, Barricade was killed not long after, the arrival of Dreadwing's team, and the attempted assassination of Nightshade by Flamewar via Insecticon swarm. The most worrying was Soundwave's disappearance. No one knew what happened with that.

"I sent Soundwave, Laserbeak and Ravage to investigate possible third party interference in Osea." She informed him. "He insisted on going alone."

"Are you sure these…visitors made no attempt to contact you?" He asked.

"No, and they probably wanted to remain undetected too. Soundwave deduced that they might be a rouge party involved with something off world that came to Terra looking for something." Nightshade said. "Considering not long after, I got a call from Razorclaw about Thunderwing appearing on one of our planets and then fighting off a joint army of Autobots and Decepticons on Cybertron, I believe this was related."

"Thunderwing…" Megatron wished he killed that monster before things got out of hand. Knowing that some madman out there had tried to revive him nearly sent him into a rage.

"Buzzsaw is still looking for Soundwave and the others, but so far, we've got nothing. Not even the Nemesis' computers can track him." Nightshade sighed. "Something's blocking his signal."

Megatron was silent for a moment before grunting and looking to the pink energon in his hand. "Tell me about this ultra-energon."

Nightshade blinked at the sudden change in subject, but gathered herself. "According to Thundercracker, Starscream had first discovered a very small amount of this stuff when he first came to this planet. I assume that Starscream dragging his feet with the infiltration protocol was a result of him using his resources to find more of this energon. With it, he was even able to best Skyfire in combat."

"Some good it did him." Megatron snorted. "Still, this energon is rather odd. It's strange enough that this planet is creating energon of its own, but now we have a mutant strain of it popping up? This planet is full of surprises."

"Indeed." Nightshade nodded. "Thundercracker said they located eleven distinct seams, but there could be more."

"No wonder Starscream saw fit to advance his own cause." Megatron said. "But one can't help but wonder if-at some point in the history of this world-evolution had a helping hand. Whatever the case, its presence here could be decisive."

"Apparently, Starscream had gotten started with the infiltration protocol by replacing some Osean government officials with facsimiles, but he held off on going onto stage two until he found more ultra-energon. Do you want me to issue a recall?"

Megatron thought about it for a moment. "No. since Starscream went through all the trouble setting the stage for us, it'd be rude not to perform." He grinned. "But where Starscream saw vainglorious self-advancement, I see total long term victory. The staged process here must be advanced. Perhaps even…accelerated."

Nightshade couldn't help but think how demonic his grin looked in the light of the ultra-energon.

XXXXXX

Penny Pincer was a girl who had big aspirations in life. She was fearless, defiant in the face of certain death (Megatron) or in the face of attrition (Prowl), but one thing she hated other than being treated like a spoiled rich girl was being scolded by Gina Harkins. Over the past few months their relationship had evolved from that of two alpha females seeking dominance over each other to that of frenemies who encourage each other to do their best. So having a girl who was known for absentmindedly walking into danger without a second thought was a bit embarrassing.

"I still can't believe you and Kevin did that." Gina said, looking over her laser blaster. The weapon's parts were disassembled across her work table as she checked its components over. "When the Autobots tell you to run, you run. No ifs, ands or buts about it."

"I know, I know, Kevin gave me the same lecture on the way back." Penny sighed. As annoying being scolded like this by a girl who took twice as many risks as her, Penny knew Gina was just worried about her. The two girls had an unspoken agreement that neither of them will put themselves in unnecessary danger just to one-up each other. Even scientific curiosity needed a limit every once in a while.

"As long you understand that we can't take risks anymore. Things are escalating after the hate plague incident and we need to watch our step." Gina said.

"Okay, but did you see what we recorded in that bunker?"

"Yeah, I watched it with Wheeljack."

"Then you also saw the…body." Penny bit her lip.

Gina nodded. "I did."

"Was that…man a prisoner or something?" She asked.

"Not exactly," The blonde answered. "That was a facsimile-a biotechnological clone grown in fusion tubes."

"Clones?" Penny breathed. "My god, they can make clones of us now?"

"They look like us, think like us, they're even implanted with false memories taken from the original subject." Gina said, thinking back to what Ratchet told her about Decepticon technology. "They don't even know they're artificial until their masters call on them."

Penny's mouth went dry. This was more chilling than she thought. "Was that body I saw down in the bunker one of them?"

"That was probably the original. Ratchet told me facsimile are prone to malfunctioning, so when they breakdown, the Cons grow another one. I'm guessing they left that one alone too long and he…" Gina went silent.

"Okay." Penny nodded, trying to fight down her disgust. "But what are they even used for?"

"Infiltration." Someone said. The girls jumped when they saw Sara appear behind them without so much as a sound. "Standard procedure of Infiltration Protocol Phase Two: agitated global confrontation. As the native species tears itself apart, the Decepticons siphon as much natural resources as they can until nothing is left."

Penny didn't know why she was still surprised by this news, considering deception was literally in the Decepticons' name. She never thought of those intergalactic conquerors were capable of anything other than total destruction and mass genocide, but when she really thought about it, it made sense to avoid wasting time and resources fighting an open war.

"The Autobots are on high alert, right now. After what you found, they think the Cons are already starting their plan, if they haven't already." Gina said.

"But the Cons were already on Terra for an entire year. Why start doing this now?" Penny asked.

"No idea, though I think it might be because Starscream was dragging his feet." Gina shrugged. "Whatever the case, we don't know what's going to happen until the fireworks start."

XXXXXX

There was always bad blood between the eastern nations of Yuktobania and the Fato Federation. Fato had been a subsidiary of Yuktobania, but after the Gulf War, it gained its independence after a rather arduous and bloody war of their own. Even though there is a peace treaty between the two nations, they were still in a cold war of sorts in their attempts to surpass each other. At this point, the non-aggression treaty between them was worth less than the paper it was written on, and all that was needed to spark the fires of war was one, just one, shot to be fired.

Thundercracker and Skywarp flew across the outer regions of Yuktobania's territory, where their designated target was located. They were camouflaged in the gold and purple colors of the Yuktobanian Air Force, a clever color alteration to fool the simmering Federation patrol units on the other side of the border.

" _Talk to me, Skywarp."_ Megatron said over the comm.

"We're approaching the location and we're all set." Skywarp reported. "Just give the word."

" _The word is given, Skywarp. Do not disappoint me again."_ Megatron said and cut the link.

"Right, yeah." Skywarp sighed. "I'm tellin' ya, Thundercracker, he's definitely got it in for me. Hell, he's out for all of us!"

"Can you blame him?" Thundercracker asked incredulously. "We aided Starscream in trying to overthrow him, and you even had the gall to lock onto him! You're lucky he didn't blast a hole in your torso and use you to make a reading chair."

"I panicked! Things were getting heated and I did the first thing I could think of."

"Some good that did you." Thundercracker muttered and saw their target. "Weapons free. We're about to let loose some fireworks."

As they came up on an oil depot near the Yuktobania/Fato border, the Seekers opened their bomb bay doors and dropped their cluster bombs right on top of the refineries. It only took a few seconds for the entire complex to go up in flames, thousands of gallons of exposed oil going up in a huge fireball with a boom that could be heard for miles. Military forces were already being deployed to attack the two alien fighters that bombed them, but they were already flying away from their guns.

"I suppose it could be worse." Skywarp continued. "We could be Starscream."

"Lord Megatron, it's done." Thundercracker reported. "The facility is destroyed."

XXXXXX

At their headquarters, Megatron smirked at the monitor. Barely five minutes had passed and already the fires of war were spreading.

"Excellent." He said. "The Yuktobanians will be blamed and tensions in the areas, already at their breaking point, will rise!"

"Lord Megatron," Demolishor walked up to him and saluted. "Your orders?"

"Demolishor, see to it that our puppets dance to our tune. Do not improvise."

"Yes, my lord."

Megatron smirked and looked back at the hologram of Terra floating in front of him. Things were finally going well for once, though with wildcards like Flamewar and Airachnid in play, he refused to let himself become too lax. There was important work to be done and he wasn't going to be led astray by rogue elements within his own ranks.

This ultra-energon could be the very thing that he needed to win the War for Terra. He just needed an chance to test it against the Autobots…and what better way to do that than by drawing them out with an international war?

XXXXXX

"Rath!" Alexi Rabirov, squad leader of Fato's 17th talos division, ran up to his fellow ensign, who was loading up in a jeep near their camp. "Rath, what are you doing?"

"What do you think?" Rath said stoically. "I'm leaving."

"Rath, these rumors of a deal between Belka and Yuktobania mean that now-more than ever-the others need reassurance-no, action!" Alexi stomped over to the man with a hard look. "We've lost too many good people. We can't just roll over!"

"Alexi, Alexi," Rath sighed. He patted his comrade's shoulder. "Who said anything about rolling over? We fight for the bitter end to teach those Yuktobanian dogs a lesson. As for action first, trust me when I say it's coming."

"With that said, Rath got into his jeep and drove off, nodding to his fellow soldier before disappearing into the snowy forest that layered Fato's northern territory.

Rath was careful to stay close to the border as he drove further up the national line, careful to avoid any prying eyes as he stopped at an abandoned Yuktobanian outpost. He parked next to the old shack and looked up at his true masters.

"Rath Koska, your little insignificant war is about to escalate into a full scale international incident.""

The seasoned general looked blankly up at the towering forms of Megatron, Demolishor and Thundercracker, not afraid at all at the sight of these intimidating giants. Leader-1 stood at Megatron's feet holding a grey blaster that looked like it was crafted from Megatron's armor.

"When we are done here, Rath Koska," Megatron said to Koska, or rather, the facsimile that was Koska. "The world will forever be changed. Leader-1, if you please."

Leader-1 handed Koska a blaster. It was a small weapon, even by Minicon standards, but it was much more powerful than outward appearances showed.

"Koska, you have the unprecedented honor of wielding a weapon in my name." Megatron said. "Use it well."

"What's a tiny thing like that supposed to do?" Thundercracker asked.

"It's a weapon made using the ultra-energon we found. It's supposed to be more powerful than baseline energon, even when compressed into a smaller form." Demolishor said and nodded to Koska. "Watch."

Koska pointed the blaster at a nearby oil line and pulled the trigger. To Thundercracker's surprise, the gun fired a beam larger and more destructive than a weapon its size should produce. The beam tore apart the oil pipe and ignited the oil that spurted from the hole, causing the pipe to ignite rapidly.

"With their primary oil supply line severed, the Yuktobanians will not be long in investigating." Megatron said. "Koska, gather your rebel force."

Koska bowed his head and got into his jeep. "Yes, Lord Megatron"

"Demolishor, Thundercracker, make yourself scarce."

The two Cons transformed to their alt modes-Thundercracker into his usual F-15 jet mode and Demolishor into a Fato Federation T-14 battle tank, with some modifications of course.

"What about you, sir?" Demolishor asked.

"I'll alert the others to prepare for our debut performance." Megatron grinned, his eyes glowing not red, but purple as he rolled his joints in anticipation. "The Autobots will be upon us soon and we must be ready to show them our newfound might."

Megatron was riding on a high right now-a result of the overcharge the ultra-energon running through his circuits. His face sported a wide grin as he walked off in pursuit of his biggest victory on this accursed rock. The Autobots will get their due punishment for all the humiliation they put his Decepticons through. Death would be a mercy.

As for Leader-1, he escorted Koska to a ridge near the border, where Songbird had reported seeing a battalion of Yuktobanian tanks rolling towards the oil reservoir. They waited patiently as the tanks drove through a small canyon in single file, perfect targets in a shooting gallery.

"Can you be sure the Yuktobanians will respond in kind?" Koska asked. "They may seek a diplomatic solution."

"You are not the only facsimile in play here, Koska." Leader-1 chuckled. "As we speak, speeches are being made in Brasnya, where necessary pressure will be brought to bear. Nothing has been left to chance."

"And when they come? In the experience of this individual, such confrontations usually end in a stand-off."

"When they come? Hehe," Leader-1 shook his head. Typical facsimiles, they always lacked imagination. "Koska, what do you think Demolishor is here for?"

Down below, General Todorof raised a hand to signal the tanks to stop. "Hold position here!"

"Now what?" His lieutenant sighed.

"You're new, aren't you, Breski? Otherwise you'd know what." The general said. "We hold position, the Fato troops hold position. Eventually the politicians agree to some kind of mutually face-saving compromise and we all go home."

Breski wasn't convinced. "Thing is, general, I've been around the capitol. Long enough to read the signs and right now none of them are good."

"Trust me, I've been a commissioned officer for sixteen years and haven't yet fired a shot in ang-"

The tank behind them exploded in a fireball, blasting their jeep over and sending the two officers to the ground. The attack had come from Demolishor, who was shooting long range shells from his position atop a snowy mound, just out of the Yuktobanian tanks' range. He fired another shell and destroyed the left side of another tank in the line.

"They're firing on us!" The general yelled into his radio. "Confirmed? Who else could it be? We have Fato armor firing on us!" he ducked his head as a tank shell shot over his head and blasted apart a tree trunk just a foot away from him. "Sir, I need a direct order here!"

Fortunately, his commanding officer didn't waste any time in ordering a counterattack. "Understood. All units, fire at will!"

XXXXXX

When Optimus returned to Terra, somehow he wasn't surprised by the lengthy developments that occurred in his absence. Megatron was back, after Starscream's supposed attempt to snuff him out and pin the blame on the Autobots, and Starscream got his hands on a new form of energy that granted him enhanced abilities. The same type of energon that brought Thunderwing back to life.

He knew it was only a matter of time before the Cons got a hold of the strange energon known as ore-13, and unfortunately, he was right.

"Prime," Prowl called to him. "We've got something."

Optimus and Prowl were checking out the local news networks for anything suspicious since Starscream's power play, and Teletran-1 just discovered something worth looking into. Analyzing a map of Emmeria, the tactician discovered a hot spot near the Yuktobania/Fato border.

"Federation tanks where they shouldn't be in response to an authorized air strike on a Federation oil plant courtesy of two Yuktobanian fighter jets." Prowl said. "There's a crisis brewing, an armed confrontation in the offing. As it is, the smaller nations are already taking sides."

"Anything about it say Decepticon?" Prime asked.

"Big time. Our satellites over the area managed to catch this." He brought up an overhead image of a man firing a gun with a huge burst of energy shooting from the weapon-too big for a weapon that small. "This man is Georgi Koska, head of a militaristic splinter-faction of anti-Yuktobanian radicals. See the weapon he's using? It's far too advanced to any human to have on hand like that."

"Meaning outside intervention." Optimus said. "Namely the Decepticons."

"And seeing as even a human blaster wouldn't have enough power for an energy discharge like that, I assume it's using something different other than regular energon." Prowl said. "Ore-13?"

"Without a doubt." Prime said with utmost certainty. "Action?"

"Stamp out the flames, locate the Decepticons and keep their attention on us as we secure/contain the facsimile…at any cost!" Prowl replied.

"Agreed." Optimus nodded. "Ready your strike team."

XXXXXX

Optimus and Prowl assembled a strike team for the mission-Jazz, Wheeljack, and Arcee. The others were placed on standby, despite protests from Ironhide and Moonracer. Everyone remained focused on the task, knowing that a war could start if they weren't careful about this.

Teletran-1 sent a ground bridge to Brasnya, where the action was taking place, and the team appeared in a snowy field, just out of sight of any human forces.

"Prowl, take your team to the perimeter and await my signal." Optimus said. He changed into his truck mode and attached his trailer, which was a mobile command base. "Once I draw out Megatron, move in and isolate the target. Immobilize any local traffic, but do not engage. We don't want to make matters worse."

Optimus drove into the forest as his team also reconfigured into their alt modes. Prowl warmed up his engine. "You heard him. Let's move out."

Their main goal was to capture the facsimile intact. Its genetic template was the key to the location of any other constructs that may be hiding on the planet. If they wanted to get this done without any casualties, Prime needed to draw Megatron's attention to himself.

Optimus was puzzled as to Megatron's motives. What was the purpose of this excursion? The Decepticons had spent over two years on this planet and hadn't even begun their infiltration protocol, but now Megatron's suddenly getting straight to work in starting a war. With OZ and the dolems, Optimus figured that Megatron would stick with a different approach. Centuries of fighting Megatron had told Optimus that the Decepticon leader had something big planned.

XXXXXX

" _Prime, we've found the facsimile. He's with Leader-1 and Search."_

"Understood, I'm on my way."

Optimus increased his speed, thankful that his tires were durable enough to drive over snow and ice. Following Prowl's coordinates, it wasn't long before he found the facsimile with the two Minicons driving away in a jeep.

"Target sighted."

Search was the first one to notice Prime heading for them and stopped the jeep. "We've got company."

"Koska," Leader-1 said, turning to the facsimile. "You know what to do."

Koska nodded and pointed his gun at Optimus, but before he could shoot, an explosion blew the jeep off the ground and sent both Koska and his Minicon masters flying apart. Jazz and Arcee drove down the slope of the mountain they were hiding in firing laser cannons mounted on their hoods. Prowl and Wheeljack were keeping their position back on the other side of the valley.

"Jazz, Arcee, spread them out. Don't give the Minicons time to reorganize themselves." Prowl ordered. "Once you have an opening, Wheeljack and I will swoop in and secure the facsimile."

"Roger that, Prowler. We're on it!" Jazz said.

Leader-1 transformed and fired his twin pulse cannons, but they were little threat against the advancing Autobots. Search made to transform, but Leader-1 stopped him.

"Don't bother, we're not even denting them!" He growled. "Koska, begin self-termination."

Koska's body began twitching and convulsing before he stumbled towards the chaotic tank battle. This was a program installed into the facsimiles to terminate themselves to avoid capture. More advanced models would commit suicide in order to fool their native species and keep the Autobots from obtaining the bodies.

"Damn!" Prowl cursed and drove down the slope with Wheeljack. "It's going to destroy itself! Wheeljack, take it down!"

"Readying nerve paralysis pulse. Stand clear!" Wheeljack said. His hood opened up to deploy two cannons and aimed at the facsimile.

Suddenly the ground around them exploded, bathing them in flames. A pair of blue and green fighter jets flew over them, shooting missiles down at their location. It was Dreadwing and Skyquake. Similarly, Arcee and Jazz were under attack by Thundercracker and Skywarp. With the Autobots preoccupied, Koska continued walking slowly through the snow towards his programmed death.

"Optimus, it's getting away!" Jazz yelled.

"Ratchet, send in Skyfire and Bumblebee." Optimus ordered.

XXXXXX

Inside the trench he was hiding in, General Todorof was yelling at his units to stop firing. He was trying to get the situation under control, but he couldn't do that with both his men and the Yuktobanians firing shells at each other. Then the attacks suddenly stopped and the battlefield finally went quiet, allowing him to gather his thoughts. When he looked over the trench, he saw what caused both sides to stop firing and gaped at the odd sight before him. His lieutenant crawled up next to him.

"What is it, General?"

"The Fato tanks have stopped their shelling…and I can see why." Todorof said. "We are no longer the only combatants in the area."

Through his binoculars, he saw quite possible the strangest sight in his career. Two jets, two F-16 Raptors of Osean manufacture, were being shot at by some kind of rally car with two cannons sticking out of its hood and a police car. Not far from that was a white striped sports car and pin convertible duking it out with two more unknown fighter aircraft.

"I...do not understand." Breski said, totally confused.

"Neither do I, Breski. Neither do I." Todorof replied. "But I have a feeling we'll find out soon."

Prowl was having a difficult time reaching Koska with Skyquake hounding him at every turn. Missiles and laser blasts hit the ground around him and he was forced to disengage. "Damn it, I can't reach him!"

"And you never will, Autobot!" Skyquake said. As he continued to attack Prowl, he heard someone cry out behind him.

"Sneak attack!"

Two particle blasts tore into Skyquake's body and sent him spiraling into the ground. Prowl skidded to a stop and saw Skyfire circling above him.

"Skyfire?"

"I've got you covered, Prowler. Go for the prize!" Skyfire said.

Prowl focused on his mission, driving at full speed straight for the facsimile. He was just two feet away from the clone and was almost on top of him when he noticed something yellow heading his way. Then he felt himself hit something hard. Koska jumped aside as Prowl and Bumblebee collided with each other hard enough to revert back to robot mode and crashed into the snow.

Todorof saw the sudden conversion of the two Autobots and at that moment, he knew what he was dealing with. It was something more than what his military salary could handle. "Get me a radio! I'm calling this in!"

"What is it? What do you see?" Breski asked.

"Nothing." Todorof answered stiffly. "This is general Todorof, fourteenth infantry. Get me a secure line to Major Akurin. Priority Alpha 94." He waited for a reply, but all he got was dead static. "Hello? Does anyone copy?"

Todorof had no idea that the Decepticons had set up a small radar array in a hidden area-essentially turning the entire region into a dead zone. It wasn't anything major, but any signal that wasn't of cybertronian nature wasn't getting out or in. this was a private affair between mechanical warriors.

" _Prime, this is Skyfire. Comettor just picked up a flashpoint over your area."_ Skyfire reported. _"No human signals are getting in or out, and the local news feeds are jammed. It's a dead zone."_

Optimus rolled to a stop as he heard the familiar sound of tank treads tearing up the ground at high speeds heading his way. "I think I know why, Skyfire."

A silver tank smashed through the trees and drove right off the cliff above him, reshaping itself into a massive robotic figure as he slammed into the ground. Megatron glared hatefully at Prime and bashed his fists against his chest.

"Prime!"

XXXXXX

Skywarp teleported over a group of disabled tanks looking for any more targets to hit. He wasn't expecting to have Jazz and Arcee open fire on him from the ground.

"That's a nice trick, Skywarp, but it gets old very fast." Jazz grinned.

"Especially when you don't have your buddy protecting you." Arcee said.

"Slag!" Skywarp cursed as he broke away from their assault and flew away from them. "Thundercracker, where the hell are you?"

"He's indisposed of."

A missile hit Skywarp's underside and the Seeker felt his systems freeze up. He tumbled through the air and hit the ground, shredding apart snow-covered trees on his way down. He changed modes and stood up, only to get hit in the chest with another shell, which exploded and shot hundreds of sharp metal fragments into his face.

"Not this again!" Skywarp wailed and stumbled back. Trying to get the filaments out of his face, he didn't see Wheeljack coming until the Autobot leapt on his back and socked him in the face.

"Howdy." Wheeljack stabbed an electrical prod into Skywarp's neck and the purple Con dropped like a rock. "That's it for the Cons on my end, guys."

"So that leaves Dreadwing and Skyquake." Arcee said and called Prowl. "Prowl, did you get Koska?"

"No," Prowl grumble as he pulled himself out of the snow drift he crashed into. "I would've had him on ice if someone hadn't stuck their yellow tailpipe in the way!"

"I said I was sorry, Prowl." Bumblebee grunted. "It's not like he'll go far."

"Bee, that facsimile is in the form of general Koska of the radical separatists," Prowl said. "Those are Yuktobanian troops he's heading for. They'll shoot him on sight!"

Bumblebee turned towards Koska, who was stumbling into the no man's zone between the two warring sides, out in the open with no natural protection.

"Oh slag!"

XXXXXX

"It's been too long, Optimus Prime." Megatron growled, steam snorting from his nostrils. "It's been too long since I really cut loose. Let's finish this now, Prime!"

Megatron fired his fusion cannon at Prime's truck mode. Optimus dodged the beam but was knocked off his wheels for a second as the explosion rippled throughout the area. It was much more destructive than the usual power output his cannon had.

"See that, Prime?" Megatron smirked. "That's my new power, courtesy of Starscream's arrogance. And I intend to put it to good use in killing you!"

"It seems to me Megatron that the power has gone to your head!" Optimus said. He transformed into his robot mode and the built-in armory in his back opened up to deploy his ion cannon. He snatched it out of the air as it unfolded and he fired back at Megatron. "The Megatron I knew was calm, measured and controlled, not some raging braggart hell-bent on exposing our presence to this world!"

"Calm doesn't win battles, Prime, force does!" Megatron replied, grunting as he took an ion blast to his chest. "As for witnesses, trust me when I say that none will be around to tell the story!"

Optimus ducked under a plasma blast that vaporized four trees behind him. "You always know what to say to bring out the best in me!"

He fired another blast and saw it shoot straight into Megatron's fusion cannon, causing the power to back-up and explode the barrel. Megatron snarled and tore the damaged cannon off his arm. "I need no weapons to kill you, Prime. Bare hands will suffice!"

As the smoke cleared, he saw Optimus charging at him and took a hard uppercut to the chin that sent his large form flying back and crashing to the ground.

"Fine," Optimus said, cracking his knuckles. "Let's dance."

XXXXXX

Prowl and Bumblebee raced towards the facsimile of general Koska, who stood before the Yuktobanian troops waving his arms and proudly declaring his loyalty to his country, essentially making himself a target.

"Death to the invaders!" He yelled. "Glory to Fato!"

"One of us'll have to run interference." Bumblebee said. "And no offense, Prowl, but I vote for you to get shot at."

"Yeah, thanks."

The soldiers took aim at Koska, but before they could open fire, Prowl expertly swerved in front of the facsimile in car mode. Bullets pounded against his alt mode but the Autobot ignored the stinging as he saw Koska running the other way. Bumblebee appeared in his path and lightly bumped into him, knocking him to the ground. The soldiers pointed their rifles at the scout, but Prowl stood in their way.

"You'd be well advised," Prowl said, transforming to robot mode in front of them. "To lower your weapons and go home."

"Please, listen to us!" Bumblebee said. He gave Prowl a look to get Koska as he spoke to the soldiers. "What occurred here is not your fault nor the Federation's, but of an outside source. No one is to blame, but this is not general Koska. You have been deceived."

The soldiers stared wide eyed at the two Autobots and for a second, Prowl thought they'd start shooting. He was pleasantly surprised, and relieved, to see the captain order his men to stand down and pull back their forces. Bumblebee gave the man a thankful smile and gave a shaky breath as the tanks and soldiers left the area.

"I didn't think that was going to end so well." He laughed.

"Nice job." Prowl said. He had the facsimile in his arms and restrained. "You've always had a way with words."

Bumblebee grinned. "Comes with the job."

"Prime, target contained and, I think, the geo-political crisis diffused somewhat. We're done here." Prowl reported. "Prime?"

Arcee's voice came through instead. " _Prowl, Optimus is fighting Megatron and he's not doing very well at all!"_


	21. Infiltration part 2

Chapter 21-Infiltration part 2

Optimus crashed through some trees before rolling along the ground, kicking up snow and dirt. His body ached from the serious punches Megatron through at him, showing his enhanced strength. Megatron charged out of the forest and swung a fist at Prime, who jumped back. The punch that missed him completely shattered a tree trunk in a single blow.

"How's it feel, Prime? To finally know what true power looks like?" Megatron asked. "See how the balance of power has shifted? It's only going to get worse from here-"

Megatron cut himself off as Optimus threw dirt into his face, and the Prime grabbed him around the waist. Megatron tried to punch him, but Optimus held on tight as he slammed him into the ground.

"The only thing that's changed Megatron is that your voice box has loosened!" Optimus grunted.

"You can't keep this up forever, Prime. But I can fight forever!" Megatron laughed.

Optimus kicked him into a tree and stood over his face, raising a large fist to punch his face in. "Oh really?"

"Really. You won't believe the things I can do now. Things like this!"

Megatron opened his mouth wide, like a snake unhinging its jaw, and fired a powerful beam that hit Optimus in the face. Prime stumbled back, clutching his burning face, blind and in pain. Megatron stood up.

"You and I have a lot of history, Prime." He said. "So I'll do you the honor of making this quick…"

Megatron sprinted forward and punched Prime in the chest. Optimus felt the blow ripple through his body, shattering the window panes on his chest plate and rumbling his circuits. Megatron then shot his other hand forward, stabbing his fingers into Prime's chest, wrapping his fingers around Prime's laser core.

"If not excruciating!" Megatron said over Optimus's pained groans. "I told you I'd kill you here!"

XXXXXX

Veronica Howard was a woman known for her exceptional talents in the scientific field, notably robotics. Having developed a gift for technology at an early age, her work on creating the world's first operational prototype robotic prosthetic that uses brainwaves and neural transmissions to move the limb itself. Her essays on the impact of such prosthetics on the human mind and body were borderline revolutionary, and as she continued her work, many were clamoring for her product, mostly those in the military theatre. But another known field she specialized in was AI development, and it was for this reason that she was recruited by Skywatch.

When Skywatch first contacted her, she was understandably wary of the stereotypical Men in Black that approached her, but most because of the man who was leading them, Arnold Frederick, who tried to sell his offer like a business deal, saying that it wasn't something she should refuse. Veronica was never a fan of shady government types considering there were many who sought to use her research to create weapons of war, especially against the country's esper population (she hoped Alice Cordell choked on a carrot), so naturally, she was going to tell Frederick to go kick rocks and leave her alone.

Then Fredericks went against protocol and showed her a glimpse of the crown jewel of Skywatch's research into alien activity-the Ice Man. A 31 foot tall robotic being found frozen in the Arctic Circle by explorers in the mid-1800s. Veronica was amazing at this world changing discovery and agreed to join Skywatch for a chance to study this magnificent being frozen in purgatory.

Of course, things were rather calm since she joined, as she spent most of her time either looking up reports of giant figures popping up all over the world and studying the Ice Man to keep herself from going insane. It was worth getting that stupid tracking chip stuck in her arm to study that creature. But then on one fateful day, Agents Keller and McCourie arrested a group of children on a camping trip, and then the horrific massacre that followed at the hands of the same robotic beings Skywatch had been investigating all this time. They were lucky they made it out alive, but most of the personnel on site didn't, and she had no idea where those kids they brought in were. Since that incident, Skywatch had been on full alert for any more hostile aliens, monitoring the globe for any signs of what some of her superiors deemed "robotic invaders". Any sign, no matter how small, was to be looked into, as no one was taking chances.

One such discovery had her driving towards an archeological dig in Eureka, Nebrask, where an old associate of hers was waiting. She saw the archeologists and the dig team being held outside the police line, angry at the government stooges that swooped in and stole what had to be a year's worth of work. Rebecca felt bad for them, but the world was not yet ready for what they discovered.

She parked her car next to the black vans, where a handsome man in a black uniform was waiting impatiently for her. She paid him no heed as she got out of her car and walked to the excavation site.

"You took your time." He said.

"I was in the middle of analyzing data for Agent Red, Adams," Rebecca sighed. "I'm not some robot at your beck and call."

"Stow the attitude, Howard. We have work to do."

Veronica sighed and reigned in her temper. Ordinarily, she wasn't so hostile to people that fast, but Daniel Adams was a man who had the gift of making her fuse shorter. Like Fredericks, Adams was a Skywatch field commander who often did Skywatch's dirty work to protect the planet from alien incursions. He took his job very seriously, and had no qualms about sacrificing anything for the good of the human race-even other humans.

They entered the large tent, where a team was hard at work in uncovering the massive robot-which looked gigantic and terrifying in equal amounts-that was still mostly buried in the dirt. The robot's head alone was the size of a fully grown man, and its face was monstrous enough to give a weaker man nightmares. Standing at the edge of the dig site was another co-worker (not friend) of Veronica's, a middle aged man with a red beret on his head and short black hair. His black sunglasses only made him look more like a cook who spent too much time in his head than in reality. Another agent who took his job seriously, probably even more so than Adams, but on another level.

"Fredericks, Howard is here." Adams said stoically.

"Good to have you on site, doctor. Sorry to drag you out here to the middle of nowhere, but this is something you had to see." Fredericks sad.

"I don't mind coming out here if it's to see this." Veronica said, looking down at the frozen mechanoid.

It was bulky, with grey and black armor with some red and yellow along the hands and chest. Its head was black, with a red visor in place of eyes and a black mouth plate. Seeing that face reminded her of the blue robot that nearly killed her back at the base and she shuddered at the memory. She could barely sleep a full night after that slaughter.

"I admit, it's impressive, but it's nothing I haven't seen before." She said.

Fredericks gave her a grin she hated so much. It was his "I know more than you and I love it" grin. "Then maybe you'll be pleased to hear that there are four more of these things buried along with this big guy."

"Excuse me?" Rebecca said.

"There are five in total according to our geological scans." Adams said stiffly, glaring down at the inactive mech. "Five opportunities to find a way to fight these invaders once and for all before they can do some serious damage."

"And some new tech to try out." Fredericks said giddily.

"Sir," An agent poked his head into the tent. "The natives are getting restless."

"Bah!" Fredericks waved him off. "Let them bark. We've hit a goldmine here, and I do not intend to let anyone else get it. Skywatch is taking over," He smirked. "In the national interest of course."

Adams nodded. This was Skywatch's chance to gain the initiative against these invaders and possibly find a way to fight them on an even basis that didn't involve throwing numerous talos pilots into Death's jaws.

The three agents had no idea they had come across the inert form of one of the most powerful Autobots in cybertronian history-Grimlock of the Dynobots.

XXXXXX

Megatron savagely grinned as he squeezed Prime's laser core in his hand. Never had he thought that ultra-energon could allow him to best Optimus Prime so easily in battle. He'd be a bit disappointed if he weren't so ecstatic.

"This is how I like it," He whispered to Optimus. "Despite the long-range weaponry at my disposal, I prefer things up close. I like seeing the light die in my enemy's eyes as they fade. Just like now."

Two missiles hit him in the back, surprising him long enough to drop Optimus's body like a piece of unwanted scrap and spin around. Unhurt by the attack, Megatron turned to see Skyfire flying above him. He smirked as he saw the other Autobots approaching. More lambs for the slaughter.

"Hear me Autobots-Optimus Prime is dead!" Megatron declared. "The final victory in this long and bitter struggle belongs to Megatron! Kneel before me or share his fate!"

"No," Arcee whispered in horror, staring at Optimus's battered form. "It can't be."

"See for yourself." Jazz said grimly. "Optimus is down and out."

"We can still save him!" Wheeljack said, running forward and firing a shell from one of his shoulder cannons. It hit Megatron right in the middle of his chest, but it barely pushed the warlord back.

Megatron smirked as smoke rose from where he was hit. "I almost felt that."

"Damn it! Jazz, Wheeljack, take him down!" Arcee shouted. They all unleashed their weapons on Megatron, firing their blasters, photon rifles and plasma cannons at maximum power. Even Nightshade would've been severely damaged by the full powered assault, but Megatron wasn't even budging from his spot.

"Scrap. Prime's down and it looks like Megatron might be hopped up on the same stuff that Starscream was juiced on." Prowl said.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Bumblebee said, holding Koska in his arms. "Let's go!"

"Nah ah," Prowl raised a hand. "You're calling Ratchet for a ground bridge."

"What? But I'm needed here!"

"What's needed is that facsimile's genetic template." The tactician replied. "Otherwise, everything we've done here would be for nothing."

Bumblebee looked at Prowl as he collapsed into car mode and sped towards the scene of the chaotic battle, leaving the scout along with his passenger.

"Jazz, Wheeljack, Arcee-I'm inbound!" Prowl called in. He really hoped to Primus that Optimus wasn't truly dead and just in stasis lock. Because if he was, then this was as good as finished along with this planet."

XXXXXX

Optimus Prime felt his consciousness hover in an empty void. He didn't know where he was, possibly in limbo-the intermediate plane between life and death. At least…he hoped so. Prime knew that Megatron had dealt him a fatal blow that would most assuredly mean death for him-but alas, the warlord underestimated the power of the Matrix.

At the moment, Optimus was using the Matrix to anchor his spirit to the waking world-relying on its ethereal energies to heal him just enough to allow him to move. He knew what he was doing was incredibly risky, as using the Matrix in this manner could cause some unintended side effects, but he wasn't going to leave his Autobots to Megatron's mercy.

What's this? The stays that surrounded him (he thought they were stars, but one can never be sure in a realm where dreams and reality meshed so finely) began to move, swirling together to form a shape. He felt another presence in this limbo of his-one cloaked in a tangible and numbing dread. This presence, it felt eerily similar to the aura the Cardinals emitted, and the first thing that came to mind was his brief meeting with Jubileus, the Dolem queen that declared her war against all Cybertronians on Terra.

For a moment, fear grips him as its gaze washed over him. This felt similar to the Dolem queen, but it was less intense and almost…familiar. Optimus felt his body fading and knew that he was about to regain consciousness, and as he left the void, he realized that he knew this entity-and it knew him.

XXXXXX

It was total chaos. Jazz, Arcee and Wheeljack were shooting at Megatron with everything they got, but the warlord was taking all of their attacks head on without showing any signs of pain. Even the missiles and photon beams from Skyfire couldn't leave a lasting mark.

"Fall back!" Prowl shouted. "Back off now!"

"It's no use." Arcee growled. "Our weapons aren't working on him. He's damn near unstoppable!"

"I could rush in and do some slicing and dicing." Jazz said. "That might do the trick."

"Not an option. If Megatron was able to best Prime, then he'll have no trouble tearing you in half." Prowl said as he drove over to them. "Thanks to Prime, he doesn't have any long range weapons at his disposal, so we keep him at a distance and give it everything we've got."

"That's your plan? Shoot at him until he's worn down?" Wheeljack asked.

"You got a better idea?" Arcee retorted.

Megatron waited impatiently as the Autobots focused on their plan of attack and frowned. "Are you Autobots going to fight or are you choosing this moment to plan Prime's funeral? If you won't deal another blow, then be kind enough to die like a bunch of animals!"

Megatron fired a plasma beam from his mouth at them. They scattered, but the resulting explosion knocked Jazz off his feet. Megatron lunged forward and almost grabbed Jazz, but Jetfire transformed right above him and rammed both feet into his back, slamming Megatron into the ground. Jetfire added to the attack by spewing blue flames from the boosters on his heels into the warlord.

"Come on!" Jetfire yelled, pushing his boosters to their limits. "Just die already!"

The intense flames scorched Megatron's armor, but Megatron wasn't too damaged otherwise. He grabbed Jetfire's feet and spun him around, slamming Jetfire into the ground. Wheeljack fired another shell from his shoulder cannon that exploded against Megatron's shoulder joint, but the warlord retaliated by throwing Jetfire at him. Wheeljack and Jetfire both collided with each other with enough force to crush an eighteen wheeler and both Autobots were sent crashing through multiple trees.

Jazz jumped on his back and fired his photon rifle into the back of Megatron's head. Megatron grunted and grabbed Jazz's gun arm, ripping it off with a yell and threw him into the ground. Prowl ran at him from behind with his exploding shuriken, but Megatron used Jazz's body as a bat, whacking Prowl in the face with his comrade before punching him in the face hard enough to almost dislocate his jaw.

"Pathetic. I expect ore from you Autobots," Megatron sneered, throwing Jazz to the ground and stomping on his chest. "Where are your heavy hitters? At this point, your human pets could put up a better fight!"

An orange particle blast hit the side of his head, making him stagger back from the force of the attack. Prowl had shot him using Jetfire's particle cannon, but all he did was piss him off even more. Arcee limped over to him and took out her rapiers.

"You aren't doing anything to him, Prowl." She told him.

"Neither are you." He said.

Arcee pursed her lips and raised her swords. "Well, if we're going down, then at least we're going down fighting."

They opened fire on Megatron, but he plowed through their assault and fired another energy beam from his mouth, forcing them to scatter. Prowl collapsed into vehicle mode and continued shooting at Megatron while driving back in reverse.

" _Prowl…Prowl, it's me…"_

"What?" Prowl said upon hearing a voice on his internal comm. "Who…?"

" _Prowl, it's me…Optimus."_

"Prime? But I thought-"

" _That I was dead? It was very, very close. Thankfully, Skyfire caught Megatron's attention before he could finish me off. I just regained consciousness but my body's repair systems are still working to fix my motor-functions."_ Optimus said. _"I can only communicate with you via comm-link until I'm well enough to move."_

"In that case, do you have any ideas on how to beat Megatron? He's tearing us apart." Prowl said.

" _If Ore-13 is the same as the ultra-energon I encountered on Cybertron, then it has a built-in weakness…one that Megatron knows nothing about."_ Prime explained. " _You have to keep at him. Don't let up for a moment!"_

'Easier said than done.' Prowl thought and regrouped with the other Autobots. "Everyone, keep shooting and don't let up! Let him have it!"

"That's not a Prowl thing to say." Skyfire said.

"Skyfire just shut up and shoot!" Prowl yelled.

Megatron's armor was covered in burns but he still kept marching towards them like a force of nature. He was going to enjoy tearing apart these pesky Autobots and using their bodies to make a throne for himself on this world. Stray laser blasts caused smoke and snow to form a thick cloud around him, but Megatron didn't care. As he reached out to crush the Autobot he knew was Prowl, he felt a presence behind him.

"Megatron…"

Megatron turned around to see the inside of a cannon barrel in his face.

"Burn."

The Decepticon leader's vision was blinded by a painful combination of fire and light as Optimus Prime pulled the trigger.

XXXXXX

" _Bumblebee? You're leaving the combat zone already_?" Ratchet asked. " _Are you hurt_?"

"Just a little scrambled, but nothing serious. But Prowl and the others need my help ASAP, so send me a bridge, quick!"

Seconds after he made his request, a ground bridge appeared-in the air. Nightshade flew out of the portal, shooting her missile dart feathers at him. Bumblebee cursed and ran from her, shielding the facsimile with his body.

"Ow!" He grunted as three darts hit him in his back and left leg. The explosions nearly made him drop to his knees, but he forced himself to keep running. "Ratchet, hurry!"

This time, his ground bridge appeared before him and the scout made a run for it. Nightshade increased her speed and she transformed in mid-flight, planting her feet in his back and slamming him into the ground. She took pulled out Gandiva, but Bumblebee kicked her legs from under her to knock her down and got to his feet. Nightshade cursed and fired an arrow just behind his feet. The explosion it caused licked the scout's back and he gritted his teeth as he jumped into the portal, flames still burning his armor. Nightshade tried to fire another arrow into the portal, but the bridge vanished just as she pulled the string back.

"Scrap." She muttered. "Megatron, I lost the facsimile. Megatron?"

XXXXXX

Megatron clutched his burning face as he fell to the ground, Optimus' heavily damaged for standing over him with his ion rifle still smoking from that last shot. Even with his ultra-energon enhancements, it still hurt like a glitch.

"I'm not…finished!" Megatron snarled and tried to get to his feet, only to feel himself be overcome by a wave of dizziness. "W-what?"

His entire body was stricken with a severe case of pain and exhaustion. He fell all the power in his body slowly drain away, and the pain and injuries he easily shrugged off earlier came rushing back in full force. It overloaded his senses and he fell to his hands and knees trying to think straight as pain wracked his body.

"What's…happening to me?" Megatron wheezed, twitching painfully.

"Power always comes with a price, Megatron." Prime said weakly. "Yours is no exception."

"Autobots," Prowl raised his blaster. "Finish him."

The Autobots advanced on the debilitated warlord, who couldn't get his body to move thanks to his weakened power-drain. "N-Nightshade!"

His call for help was answered as Nightshade, Dreadwing and Skywarp appeared above them. Dreadwing transformed and drew his sword, slashing at Prowl to force him back. Nightshade fired her missile darts to drive the other Autobots back. Skywarp placed a hand on Megatron's shoulder.

"Get him out of here!" Nightshade shouted.

"No!" Arcee leapt at them, but Skywarp and Megatron were already gone in a flash of light. With their leader teleported to safety, Nightshade and Dreadwing quickly disengaged and transformed to their aerial modes, flying off in a hasty retreat.

With the immediate threat gone, the Autobots rushed towards their leader, who could barely stand on his own feet. Optimus almost fell over, but Prowl caught him just before he hit the ground.

"Prime, are you alright?" Prowl asked.

"Megatron-knn-nearly crushed my laser core." Optimus said in a garbled voice. "I need some time in the CR chamber."

"Ratchet, we need a medevac, stat. Prime and Jazz are hurt." Prowl called in.

"What about," Prime's voice fizzed out for a second. "The facsimile?"

"I sent Bumblebee ahead with it, but I don't know if it's still intact."

" _Bee is in the CR chamber recovering from the beating Nightshade gave him before he reached the ground bridge."_ Ratchet said.

"And the facsimile?"

In the Ark's med bay, Ratchet looked down at the smoking puddle of green go that used to be the general Koska Georgi. "I'm sorry, Prowl, but it caught some flak…it's gone."

XXXXXX

Director Joshua Red walked through the doors of one of Skywatch's major facilities in Washington. The man didn't stop or look away as he was approached by one of the organization's top agents, Forrest Forsythe.

"It's confirmed," Red said. "I just got word from out contact in Yuktobania, Major Akurin. Terra has been invaded by more NBEs, and they're here in numbers."

"You think they're looking for our ice man?" Forsythe asked as they walked together to the command center.

"Who knows? But two large ones just battled in full view of two armored battalions." He replied. "What's our status?"

"Fredericks' team reports that the Eureka excavation is on schedule. As for our two friends here, they're alive and active."

"Good. We need them to see just where the other robots are, Forsythe." Red said seriously. "This situation has just escalated beyond covert operations."

Forsythe nodded as they entered the research lab, where multiple people were working on various projects. The director knew that something big was about to go down, and he wanted to be sure that Skywatch was ready to step in if the situation spiraled out of control.

They paid none of the scientists and technicians any mind as they walked deeper into the lab up to a hexagonal pit that held two of their most recent discoveries dug up from the bowels of Mount Saint Helens. Both men looked into the deep pit at their captive aliens. At the bottom of the pit, restrained by chains made of adamantium, were the cassette bots, Laserbeak and Ravage.

* * *

 **I took the last part of the last chapter and put it to this chapter. Just a small change, nothing too serious. Thanks for reading and please leave a review.**


	22. Reinforcements

Chapter 22-Reinforcements

In the following weeks after the incident in Yuktobania, which nearly ended in Optimus' demise at the hands of a juiced up Megatron, the conflict between Yuktobania and Fato was finally beginning to simmer down without interference from the Decepticons. Still, many Autobots were worried about the consequences of the soldiers seeing both combatants, including Prowl and Bumblebee, fighting in their true forms right in the middle of the battlefield. Though it was likely that the governments of both nations were keeping quiet to preserve national security, the two factions decided to lay low for a while.

Despite the lull in the fighting, the introduction of ultra-energon, which Prime called Ore-13, was a game changer that could make things harder for both sides in the future. A new form of energon that was most likely a side-effect of natural energon growing on Terra, a power-up that could give a mechanoid superior fighting abilities. Where did it come from and how it came to spawn on the planet was just a few of the many questions already on the Autobots' minds.

Wheeljack was the most curious of them all, and he resolved himself to learn exactly what this energon was. He spent day and night studying samples of Megatron's Ore-13 laced energon that he spilled during his fight with Optimus. He barely took any breaks save to go out on patrols and have a drink in the rec room, and even then he was still obsessing over this odd form of energon. He hadn't been this way sine learning that Terra was producing its own energon. And his friends were starting to worry.

"Jackie?" Bulkhead lightly tapped on the door, which was still as loud as a knock. "Jackie, you still alive in there?"

"Come in, Bulk." Wheeljack said. "Door's open."

Bulkhead opened the door and walked inside, almost tripping on a discarded plasma rifle just two steps in upon entering. The green mech wondered how Wheeljack could find anything in this clutter, but knowing him, he probably color coded every piece of equipment and invention with a tracking chip or something. He was a hoarder, but Wheeljack was also an organized mech when he wanted to be.

"Jackie, I've said it once and I'll say it again, you need to clean up. This mess is a fire hazard. Seriously, Prowl's gonna confiscate half your things." Bulkhead said.

"He won't do that because he's not gonna see it in the first place." Wheeljack replied, not looking up from his microscope.

Bulkhead glanced at Wheeljack's back and sighed. "You're still working on that? Jackie, this has got to stop."

"If I stop, I'll lose the flow I have going for me."

"A flow?" Bulkhead glanced at Liftor, who was sitting on Wheeljack's work table. The Minicon shrugged.

"It's lingo for his flow of ideas. He got it from Gina when they were tinkering with that solar array last year."

"Jackie, listen, if Prowl put you up to this, forget him." Bulkhead said. "Just take a little energon break and recharge a bit. You'll run yourself ragged."

"I'd love to, Bulk, but I need to finish studying this Ore-13 sample." Wheeljack said. "I want to know exactly what it does before we even think about touching this stuff."

Bulkhead wanted his good friend to just rest for once and not pass out over his work table like the past dozen times whenever he got worked into an engineering frenzy. But his curiosity wore out and he took a step closer to the table. "Fine, I give. What did you find out about the stuff?"

"This Ore-13 is totally different from the baseline stuff, and I don't mean it's like red energon or Tox-En." Wheeljack said. "This wasn't tampered with or anything. It grew from Terra like this, a natural mutation. It's chemical makeup is too compact and seamless to have been done artificially."

Bulkhead blinked. "So…this is natural energon?"

"For all intents and purposes, yes. And it was like this for thousands of years, probably even before life evolved on Terra." Wheeljack looked at the little smudge of pink liquid under his microscope. "But I think this is the result of someone tampering with the energon before seeding this world."

"Wheeljack thinks that maybe Terra having natural energon isn't a fluke at all, but the result of someone purposefully seeding it with energon, maybe even doing it to create Ore-13." Liftor said.

"That's…plausible." Bulkhead nodded. "But it still seems like pretty advanced stuff for just any bot to do."

"I know, but I could be wrong, though. Energon is extremely malleable on its own, and developing on its own for thousands of years could leave it to be contaminated by other elemental composites."

"But we don't have proof to support that." Liftor said.

"That too." Wheeljack sighed. "Which is why I need actual samples of the raw stuff to see just what it's made of. If it's a natural mutation of baseline energon, then that's the end of that. But if this was done deliberately, then we need to know if Terra is at the center of center big."

"We're going to head out with Prime's team to locate some Ore-13 deposits." Liftor said. "You're welcome to join us, Bulkhead."

"W-What? But I have plans with Annie!" Bulkhead whined.

"Sorry, Bulk, but duty calls." Wheeljack said. Bulkhead could hear the grin in his voice.

The green Autobot groaned. The things he did for his friends.

XXXXXX

Searching for Terra's Ore-13 deposits proved to be a harder job than they thought, considering Ore-13 was energon that was radically more different than regular energon and had a different energy signature. It took a couple of weeks for their satellites to get a read on a deposit inside a mountain in Elladas, but once they snagged a catch, Prime mobilized his team at once.

A ground bridge appeared in front of a cave leading into the mountain, and Optimus walked out with Ironhide, Bulkhead, Wheeljack and Liftor.

"So where are we exactly?" Bulkhead asked.

"Inside Mount Pieria, the second largest mountain in Elladas next to Mount Olympus." Wheeljack said.

"We're far from any human habitation, but be careful, Autobots. Ore-13 could be twice as volatile as regular energon, so watch your step." Optimus said.

"Prime, should you be up and about like this?" Ironhide asked. "You just got the all clear from Ratchet, you're not at a hundred percent yet."

"I know, Ironhide, but this mission is too important to leave unattended." Optimus replied. "After what happened on Cybertron, I'm not taking any chances with this new energon."

The team walked through a short tunnel that led deeper into the mountain, where they found themselves inside a cave that was filled with bright purple energon crystals. They sprouted from the walls and ground like planets, reaching almost as tall as Ironhide, and were very large. The cave ceiling looked like the night sky with magenta colored stars, and made for a rather enchanting sight.

"Well what do you know," Ironhide grinned. "Wheeljack shot straight for once."

"Bite me."

Optimus walked over to one of the crystals and ran a finger along its smooth cut surface. This energon was powerful and in its raw form, extremely dangerous. He could feel the energy radiating off the crystal. Looking around with wide eyes, Optimus wondered how such potent energon had remained undetected for so long by humans and cybertronians.

"With all this energon, we can have enough firepower to beat the Cons ten times over." Bulkhead said.

"No way, Bulkhead. Megatron ran on a full tank of this stuff and he suffered from a relapse afterwards." Ironhide said. "I'm not chugging this stuff down even if you held a gun to my head."

"Ironhide is correct. We came here to secure the deposit and acquire samples for Wheeljack to study. And to keep them from Decepticon hands." Optimus said. "Large quantities may be detrimental to a cybertronian, but small doses might just be enough to get the job done."

Suddenly the cave walls were blasted in, detonating some of the crystals and causing more damage. Bulkhead was near one of them and he was blasted back by the exploding crystal. Optimus and Ironhide pointed their weapons at the hole while Wheeljack powerlinked with Liftor before checking on Bulkhead.

"Optimus Prime," Nightshade walked through the cloud of smoke, with Dreadwing, Skyquake and Demolishor. "Wasn't expecting to see you on your feet so soon."

"Nightshade." Optimus took out his battle axe. "How's Megatron? Is he still recovering from that blast to the face?"

"He'll be doing much better when I give him your head!" Nightshade drew her swords. "Seekers, melee weapons only! Kill everyone but Prime!"

"You heard the lady." Ironhide took out his war hammer and grinned. "Let's get up close and personal!"

Optimus and Nightshade ran at each other and swung their weapons. Nightshade's blades slid along the staff of Prime's axe, before Optimus spun around and swung his axe at her head. She ducked under the axe-blade and slashed at him, pushing him back for a minute before he kicked her back.

Ironhide, Wheeljack and Bulkhead charged at Dreadwing, Skyquake and Demolishor. They clashed in a flurry of swords, hammers and energo-whips that caused sparks to fly. Demolishor charged at Wheeljack and rammed his shoulder into his chest, smashing the Autobot through an energon crystal before throwing him to the ground. Wheeljack tried to use his whip, but Demolishor grabbed his arm and twisted it behind his back.

"I'm not as stupid as Skywarp, Autobot. Your tricks won't work on me." Demolishor growled.

"No, but I didn't get to where I am today by being predictable." Wheeljack held up a flash grenade and closed his eyes.

Demolishor cursed. "Wha-"

The flash grenade exploded in his face and Demolishor was blinded, allowing Wheeljack to flip onto his back and kick him face first into an energon crystal.

"Nice going, Jackie!" Bulkhead laughed and slammed his wrecking ball into Skyquake's face. "Come on, Seeker! Let's see how you do against a Wrecker who can actually fight back!"

"I already have, and I'm not impressed." Skyquake changed his arm into a titanium saw and swung it at Bulkhead, grazing his chest and leaving a shallow cut in his armor. "Let's see how you do against a Seeker who can actually fight!"

As the two brawlers traded blows, Dreadwing and Ironhide also fought. Ironhide's war hammer clanged loudly against Dreadwing's broadsword and the two soldiers were evenly matched in skill. Neither mech said a word as they tried to outmaneuver each other, and it was clear that they were more focused on trying not to take a debilitating hit.

"Give us the energon, Prime!" Nightshade demanded. "You might be able to leave with some dignity if you do!"

"You know me well enough to know that's not going to happen." Optimus said.

Nightshade stabbed forward, but he caught her arm and threw her into a boulder. Optimus swung his axe at her, which she dodged and hooked the staff with her swords, wrenching the axe from his hands and leaping over his shoulders, wrapping her legs around his head and throwing him to the ground. She jumped onto a crystal and into the air, transforming to beast mode and scratching at him with her talons.

Optimus winced as her sharp talons tore into the armor of his forearm and threw a punch at her right wing, staggering her long enough to drag her down and land another punch to her face. She changed forms and kicked him in the face before drawing Gandiva and pointing it right at his head.

'At this range, she'll hit me with no problem!' Prime thought, knowing that he had no time to dodge if she did fire that arrow. She wouldn't have tried otherwise.

Sadly for Nightshade, her trick shot was cut short when a large section of the wall was blasted apart and sunlight shined through the hole. Everyone froze when they saw a large shadow cover the hole-a bright orange ship with a bright red Autobot symbol on the side of the hull.

" _Attention assholes_ ," A cocky voice said through the ship's speakers. _"You are currently looking at the Ark-19, equipped with four positron laser cannons and two proton-missile launchers locked and loaded onto your Spark signatures. Piss us off at your peril."_

Nightshade gave a loud curse and weighed her options. She knew that ship was fully capable of precision attacks in enclosed areas-that was one thing the Autobots had over the Decepticons in terms of battleship design. She could attack it now, but she didn't fancy being blown apart in a cave full of energon. Holstering Gandiva, she called out to her team.

"Demolishor, make us an exit!" She ordered.

Demolishor blindly transformed to tank mode and fired a hole into another part of the cave that led outside. Nightshade called the base for a ground bridge and had her team retreat. Giving one last hate filled look at Optimus, she flew into the ground bridge and disappeared.

"That was anti-climactic." Ironhide grumbled.

Optimus approached the ship and waved at them. "Thank you for the assistance, Autobots. But I don't remember calling for a ship."

" _You didn't, but Elita-1 did."_ A female voice said from the ship. _"Hop aboard and we'll give you a head's up on the way to the Ark."_

Ironhide's eyes widened. "Chromia?"

XXXXXX

The rest of the Ark team, the children and Minicons were waiting outside the forest a few miles away from the Ark to meet their new team members. Prowl had already given the group the heads up about the additional Autobots landing a few miles away.

"I didn't know Optimus called for reinforcements." Darren said.

"He didn't." Prowl said, not sounding very happy. "I don't know the details, but some events happened off world that necessitated Elita-1 sending us some more Autobots to support our position on this planet. Not that we needed it."

They saw the orange shuttle approaching and landing right in front of them. The landing hatch opened up and Optimus and his team were the first ones off. They were followed by a couple of new faces, one of them Chromia.

"Hey guys! Hope you don't mind me dropping in!" She grinned.

"We're happy to have you here with us, Chromia." Prowl said stoically.

"Don't worry Prowl, I'm just here to escort your reinforcements here safely." Chromia said and smiled down at the children. "Hey, Gina. It's great to meet our courageous little human on her home turf."

"It's good to see you again, Chromia." Gina smiled brightly. "These are my friends. My boyfriend, Darren and his sister, Annie."

"It's an honor to meet the humans who've been helping our friends on this world. I'm not good with words, but you all have our eternal gratitude."

"We're happy to help them." Darren said.

"Now that we've got the introductions out of the way, can someone please explain why you're all here?" Prowl asked.

"According to Chromia, there's a third faction that's been causing trouble for both Autobots and Decepticons." Optimus told him. "Elita sent us some extra troops in case there was some more unexpected visitors that might pay us a visit."

"Like Thornment?" Jazz said.

"And Bludgeon." Prime nodded.

"She also heard how Megatron's forces have been growing on this world, she Elita-1 decided to lend you a hand." Chromia said and smirked at Prowl. "I think you ought to accept her generosity. From what I hear, this planet's a death trap waiting to happen."

"You're not wrong there." Grindor muttered.

Skyfire looked at Optimus. "Prime, your girl's awesome. Let that be known."

XXXXXX

After saying their goodbyes to Chromia and Firestar (who was piloting the ship) the Autobots returned to the Ark with their new additions in tow. The new arrivals were met with differing reactions.

"Hawk!" Skyfire gushed, arms wide open for a hug she wasn't going to get. "How's it going? It's so good to see you again!"

"I'm not going to hug you, Skyfire, so put your arms down." Tomahawk said. She was a tall, dark brown femme who transformed into a cybertronian attack helicopter. "And don't call me Hawk."

"But you loved that nickname back in flight school!" Skyfire whined.

"No, I constantly told you to know it off, but you kept ignoring me." Tomahawk glanced down at the human girl standing by Skyfire's foot. "Oh, hello there. Who are you?"

"I'm Annie." Annie said, smiling up at her. "I'm Bulkhead's partner."

Tomahawk glanced at Bulkhead curiously, and the olive green mech smiled sheepishly. "Annie's small, but she's a strong girl. She's saved my metal plenty of times."

"They all have." Arcee smiled. "These humans are the ones who've met us after the Minicons reawakened and they've been a great help to us in acclimating to this world."

"Elita-1 had high praises for you children." Tomahawk gave a small smile towards the trio. "I am looking forward for working with you in the future."

"Don't give them high hopes, Tomahawk." A cocky voice said. A yellow and black mech with a nicely polished finish walked into the room with a cocky swagger, glaring down at the children like they were dirt stuck to his foot. "What can a couple of fleshies do against the Cons except be cannon fodder?"

A bright blue energy ball exploded inches away from his face, making him stumble back. Gina stepped forward, her eyes crackling with energy.

"How's that for cannon fodder?" Gina smirked.

The Autobot growled and stomped forward, only for a hand on his shoulder to stop him. "Reign it in, Sunstreaker. You're not gonna score points threatening Prime's friends."

"Oh you're one to talk, Hot Rod." Sunstreaker shot back.

"My name's Rodimus, not Hot Rod, not Hot Shot, and certainly not Flameo." Rodimus, a bright red mech with orange along his forearms and thighs said frowning. He punched Sunstreaker in the shoulder. "Don't you forget that, Sunny."

"Would you two knock it off? I thought the humans were the only children here." The scolding came from Lifeline, the medic and part-time scientist who helped fix Skyfire's transwarp drive. "Straighten yourselves up or I'm reporting you to Prime."

Rodimus and Sunstreaker glared at each other before looking away with aggravated huffs. Lifeline shook her head as she turned to greet the children, only to face Skyfire's larger form.

"Why hello there." Skyfire drawled.

"No. Just no." Lifeline said.

"But-"

"No. Don't even think about it."

Darren snickered. "Denied."

Prowl ignored the tomfoolery around him and addressed Tomahawk. "I'm assuming you're in charge of this team?"

"Yes, seeing as I have the most field experience of the group, Elita-1 thought it would be nice to have a veteran leading the two mavericks over there." Tomahawk's words sounded scathing, but the tiny smile on her face said otherwise. "We'll be living with you all here on the Ark, if there's enough room."

"Oh we've got plenty to spare, considering the half the people here barely reach our ankles." Ironhide grumbled.

Rodimus clapped his hands and grinned. "Well, since we have that out of the way…who's up for street racing?"

"Not so fast, Rodimus." Optimus walked into the room and gave him a look. "You all must find Terran alt modes first before doing anything."

"I would've remembered that if someone," He shot Tomahawk a glare. "Let me off the base more often."

"After that stunt you pulled a while back, you should be glad that you're even allowed off the base at all." Tomahawk said.

"What'd he do?" Bumblebee asked.

"Hot Rod here tried to surf on a meteor shower to infiltrate a Decepticon prison camp." Tomahawk said. "He almost went into stasis lock on impact."

"It was an unorthodox entry no one was expecting." Rodimus groaned.

"You were on a solo mission infiltrating Decepticon territory." Tomahawk crossed her arms and glared down at the shorter mech. "And yet caution was the last thing on your mind."

"Tomahawk, Rodimus, please. Now's not the time for a lover's spat." Lifeline sighed.

"Since you four will be joining our team on this planet, it's paramount that you all obtain Terran alt modes." Optimus said. "And learn everything you can about this planet's social and political climate."

"And that means you'll need native guides who know everything about everything about this place." Jazz said and pointed to the kids. "Like them."

"Whoa, you want these tiny fleshies to babysit us? Are you out of your mind?" Sunstreaker gave a sardonic laugh. "Primus, as if slumming it out here isn't bad enough."

"The children," Arcee put strong emphasis on the word. "Are our friends and comrades. And they should be treated with respect, Sunny."

"Don't call me that!" He growled.

"Sunstreaker, act like you have some military discipline. This is no way for an Autobot to act on an alien world." Tomahawk said. "If they say we work with the humans, then we work with them. Am I clear?"

"…Yes sir." Sunstreaker grumbled.

"Yeah, Sunny, no need to hate on the little guys. I'm sure they have a better idea of fun than some of the Bots here." Rodimus strolled up to the children and smiled. "Who's up for a little off-roading spectacular courtesy of yours truly?"

"Oh, I am!" Annie cheered.

The collective "NO!" everyone shouted shot that idea down immediately.

XXXXXX

"It's refreshing to have some new faces here." Gina said brightly, guiding the four new Autobots on a tour of the ship alongside her friends. "Not that I'm complaining, but it's nice to have some new faces that aren't Minicons around here. After a few weeks it gets a bit dull without Megatron enacting some world domination scheme or something. As you know, I am Gina Harkins, and this is my boyfriend (she loved saying that) Darren and his twin sister Annie Radcliffe. There's also Kevin and Penny, but they're not here right now, so we'll keep this little session between us."

Tomahawk, Rodimus, Sunstreaker and Lifeline stared down at the fast talking girl with looks of near incomprehensibility. How could one girl talk so fast was beyond them, but it was disorienting.

'I thought humans required oxygen to breath.' Tomahawk thought as Gina continued to babble. 'Is she the exception?'

"And remember to always obey traffic laws…unless it's an emergency. If that's the case, then feel free to run that red light and yell fu-"

"Okay, Gina. I think they get it." Sureshock sighed.

"Wow," Rodimus blinked. "Um, that was something. Are all humans like this?"

"No, just Gina, thankfully." Ratchet said. "You'll get used to it."

"Hmph. Noisy little creatures, aren't they?" Sunstreaker huffed. "So what do they help you with? Acting as meat shields for the Cons to shoot at?"

Bulkhead gave him a hard shove, making him stumble a bit. "Watch that mouth, Sunny. These kids are far from helpless. One of 'em even killed Lugnut."

"Really?" Tomahawk said. That was news to her. Unlike Sunstreaker, she knew that organics could be very dangerous if given the right resources, natural or artificial. The Galactic Coalition and the Black Box Consortia were a prime example of this. But how were these three children able to take down a brute like Lugnut?

"You have Gina to thank for that." Annie patted the nerd on the back. "Took that big bastard out in one shot. BOOM!"

"That's not something to brag about, Annie. Megatron tried to kill all three of you for that." High Wire said.

"Hey, anyone who can piss bucket head off like that is a friend of mine!" Rodimus said. "Glad to see you guys aren't the passive kind."

"May I remind you all that you still need to scan new alt modes? For disguise?" Prowl said, crossing his arms. He gave Rodimus a look. "If that's possible for you."

"Lay off me, guys!" Rodimus sighed, prompting a smile from Tomahawk.

"Come on, I'll show you guys to your quarters." Jazz said and had the group follow him. "We've got more than enough room for you guys, but I'd watch my step with the little guys running around."

Optimus and Prowl watched them go with mixed feelings. On one hand, the reinforcements were much needed and greatly appreciated, but on the other, Optimus was a bit worried. Rodimus was a good mech at heart, if not a bit too reckless than what was called for, but Sunstreaker's scathing arrogance made enemies even amongst friends.

"Does Elita-1 really think that we're in need of reinforcements on this world? We were doing just fine long before Thunderwing showed up." Prowl said and crossed his arms. "Did we piss someone off in a past life?"

"She's just looking out for us, Prowl. Things are getting more active in this war at an alarming rate and it doesn't hurt to be prepared, especially after what Bludgeon tried to do." Optimus said. "It'd be best not to antagonize our new additions. That said, I hope being stationed on Terra will curb some of their…unfavorable traits."

"You'd be better off trying to convince Megatron to become an Autobot." Prowl scoffed.

Prime sighed. "I know."

XXXXXX

Megatron loomed over Leader-1 and Search as the two Minicons got to work on locating ultra-energon veins around the world. Nightshade stood beside him giving him her report on her failed mission.

"An Autobot vessel?" Megatron scowled. "Are you sure, Nightshade?"

"I'm positively sure, Megatron. They had us cornered in a cave full of highly potent energon. To fight any further would have been suicide." Nightshade said. "It was a transport vessel, Valiant-Class, the ones usually fielded by tactical response teams. These Autobots are here to stay."

"Reinforcements," He spat. "We must have shaken Prime more than we thought with our display back in Yuktobania."

"So the Autobots got more manpower on their side? Wonderful." Search grumbled. "And all we got are two dead Cons and a comatose Seeker."

"It's the quality of our troops that matters, Search. Not the quantity." Nightshade said to the Minicon. "We've been through worse situations before, and this hardly qualifies as worrying."

"Very true, Nightshade, and we have some of the best soldiers my army can offer." Megatron said and glared down at Leader-1. "How goes the search?"

"Scans aren't detecting any deposits yet. It may take a while for the satellites to locate them, especially without Soundwave's help." Leader-1 said.

"Keep at it. It's paramount that we find more ultra-energon before the Autobots can locate and secure it."

"I'm surprised you're still willing to look for more after it laid you out like that in front of the enemy." Nightshade said.

"Ultra-energon is a game changer, Nightshade. It's too valuable to right off with the power it gives." He replied. "But given its side-effects, it clearly must be handled with great care."

"But this energon is definitely not natural. Someone altered it to make it like this, or did so centuries ago to make it the way it is today." She went on. "And I'm sure that the people who resurrected Thunderwing are the ones behind it."

"Without any leads, we don't have the time to conduct an investigation of our own. Leave it to Obsidian or Banazitron to worry about, we have work to do here." Megatron said firmly. "And I need you and Dreadwing focused on the task at hand."

"As you wish." Nightshade stiffly bowed her head and marched towards the door. But before she left, Megatron gave her some parting words.

"I do not do these things lightly, Nightshade. But you must understand that the situation on this planet has escalated into something unprecedented." He told her in a calmer tone. "Three members of the team are dead, Starscream has attempted a mutiny, Soundwave, Laserbeak and Ravage are MIA and Flamewar is still rogue with Airachnid and her swarm of Insecticons. In order to regain control of this battle, we need to adapt and evolve. And ultra-energon can help us do that."

"Evolve? You mean in a way that turned you into a reckless lunatic back at Brasnya?" Nightshade's tone was scathing and cutting, like two saws grinding together. "Evolving doesn't come easily to our people. If evolving to better suit our conditions involves turning into whatever you became back at your battle against Prime, then I will have no part of it. Acting like a rabid animal can only get you so far before your cut yourself with your own claws."

She exited the bridge, and the doors slid shut behind her, shutting out any reply Megatron had for her. Only that he had nothing to say.

XXXXXX

"How about that one?" Darren pointed out a red convertible that drove by them.

"Pass." Sunstreaker said.

"Okay," Darren spotted a pink sports car with white highlights. "That one?"

"Do I look like Arcee to you?" He grunted.

"Is that rhetorical?" Darren teased, earning a glare from the Autobot.

High Wire could feel the boredom setting in. The mismatched trio sat on top of a cliff in the forest that surrounded Tranquility, near a road leading into town. Darren was picking out cars at random for Sunstreaker to scan, but the Autobot was not being easy to deal with in that regard. Sunstreaker was very picky about choosing his "war paint" as he called it, and his attitude towards him and Darren was less than welcome.

"I get the feeling that you don't like us very much." High Wire commented.

"Gee, what gave that away?" Sunstreaker huffed. "Ugh, I can't believe I'm doing this."

"Doing what? Following orders or being a total ass?" Darren asked, his patience wearing thin.

"Don't start with me fleshy, I'm not in the mood." Sunstreaker spat. "I have better things to do than hang out with a Minicon and some kid from the boonies."

"Optimus' orders were clear, Sunny," Darren used Sunstreaker's hated nickname to piss the mech off further. "You need a Terran alt mode, and this process will go much faster if you stopped acting like a teenage girl in a clothing store on Black Friday!"

"Watch it, kid! I didn't come all this way just to be lectured by a runt who sheds his epidermis on a daily basis!"

"Cut the macho act douchebag Mc bro." They were practically in each other's faces by now. "Go try that bravado crap on someone who gives a damn."

"You're one to talk. A helpless little fleshy like you squarin' up against a stylin' Autobot like me? It's no competition."

"Guys, can we not do this right now? We're out in the open." High Wire said, trying to break them up. This earned him a hard shove from Sunstreaker's finger that made him stumble back.

"Can it, tiny! The only thing you Minicon scraplets are good for is power ups and getting me my drinks." Sunstreaker sneered. "Much more useful than wonderboy here."

The side of the cliff they were standing on was torn off and a ring of sharpened rocks orbited Sunstreaker's head. The Autobot tried to jump up, but he found his lower legs encased in stone from the knee down. Startled, High Wire turned to Darren, who looked like he was ready to unleash a telekinetic onslaught that rivaled his fight against Megatron.

"I suggest you tone down that attitude, junk heap." Darren growled. "Or I'll show you firsthand how dangerous we humans can be."

"You little-"

"Darren, Sunstreaker!"

Both males turned to see Arcee and Moonracer running towards them from the forest. Arcee gave Darren a look for him to stand down, and he relented, letting the rocks drop to the ground. Sunstreaker stomped towards him, but Moonracer got in his way.

"What do you two think you're doing?" Arcee questioned. "Optimus ordered you to scan a new alt mode, not pick a fight with a child!"

"But he started it!" Sunstreaker winced at how childish he sounded. "That little brat was picking a fight with me!"

"You're older than him, you moron. Act like it." She replied. "This isn't some bar at Orbital Command, this is a world where secrecy is crucial. Don't jeopardize that because you want to be the alpha male."

Then she turned her scolding gaze to Darren. "And what do you have to say for yourself?"

Darren crossed his arms and looked to the side. "Nothing. He just riled me up, that's all."

"You're better than that, Darren. Don't stoop to his level. I trust this won't happen again?" Arcee told him, and he nodded. "Now, as for you Sunstreaker. I suggest you scan a new alt mode, now."

"But there's barely anything here!"

"Then improvise," She said dryly. "This isn't a car show, Sunstreaker. Now get to it!"

"Yes, Ma'am." Sunstreaker groaned, glaring at Darren.

Moonracer sighed and sat down next to High Wire. "This is impossible. You think Annie is getting along with Rodimus?"

"I hope so. I doubt Grindor can handle the stress by himself." High Wire said.

XXXXXX

"Ahhh!" Grindor screamed, clutching his seat for dear life.

"Woohoo!" Annie laughed, the wind blowing through her hair from the open window. "This is awesome!"

Rodimus, now in his newly scanned red muscle car with bright orange flame decals, hollered along with her as he spun doughnuts in the middle of a dirt road a few miles outside a town in Wyoming. A dust cloud concealed his form as he tore up the ground with his tires and drove way above the speed limit.

"Are you kidding me right now?" Grindor exclaimed. "We're not supposed to be doing this!"

"Why not? We've already gotten Rodimus his new wheels." Annie grinned. "What's wrong with testing them out?"

"Yeah, work hard, play hard!" Rodimus whooped. "Hey let's try out that move from that show you mentioned earlier."

"The one from Dukes of Hazard?"

"Yeah, that one!"

"Oh god no." Grindor whimpered. He notice Rodimus speeding towards a small ravine. "No, no, no, no!"

"Yes, yes, yes!" Annie cheered as Rodimus pushed himself to his top speed and leapt over the ravine. "This is the best day ever!"

XXXXXX

"This is the worst day ever." Tomahawk sighed.

Tomahawk, Skyfire and Comettor were hiding outside the perimeter of an Osean military base in Ozark. It was night, and the darkness provided the Autobots some cover, though they had to be stealthy. Tomahawk needed an alt mode to match her statistics, and one of the base's aircraft would suite her combat abilities splendidly.

"Oh don't be like that, Hawk. It's been literally thousands of stellar cycles since we had a chat like this." Skyfire laughed. "I missed our funny conversations."

"We're on duty, Skyfire, not having drinks at the bar." Tomahawk said and snuck through the thin wall of trees around the base. "And lower your voice before we're discovered."

"Seriously? Honey, I've done my fair share of stealth missions. I know how to be quiet. In fact, you should've seen me when I visited this planet that looked like a giant bee hive, but the aliens there were like a cross between humans and bees. There were so many honeycombs…"

Tomahawk growled and glared back at her. "Look, just keep an eye out while I go in and scan my alt mode."

"Sure thing, birdy."

Tomahawk rolled her eyes and picked up Comettor so he could keep watch while she found her alt mode. She jumped over the wall and quietly headed over to the air field, confident that her stealth armor will hide her heat signature.

"So, you and Skyfire have quite a history." Comettor began. She looked down at him.

"Um, yeah, we went to the same military academy in Vos. Practically grew up together."

"Were you two, you know…together?"

Tomahawk almost barked out a laugh, but she stopped herself. "Please, she wishes. We never got together, Comettor, but I am with someone.

"Really, who?"

"Are we seriously discussing my love life right now?" She asked. Comettor shrugged.

"I've never seen another Autobot aside from Team Prime for nearly a year, with the better part of that year being spent with Skyfire. I need companionship."

Tomahawk reached the airfield, where military aircraft were stored. While the jet fighters were parked inside the hangar, Tomahawk was more interested in something she was more comfortable with, namely the helicopters. Like the military's most devastating attack gunship in its arsenal, the Apache Longbow.

Placing Comettor on the ground, she scanned the helicopter and downloaded its design into her processor, creating a wireframe scan in her mind. Once she finished scanning, her frame began to shift and reconfigure, her alien form changing into parts resembling a familiar Terran aircraft. The process only took seconds as her body reshaped itself into a new form. Such changes were second nature to cybertronians, so she didn't pay it any mind as she talked to Comettor.

"Now are you going to tell me who's this mystery guy you're seeing?" Comettor asked expectantly. Tomahawk smirked and rolled her eyes.

"You've already met him, Comettor." She said as she picked him up. "It's Rodimus."

"Oh, okay." Comettor nodded. A second later he looked back to her with wide eyes. "Wait, what?"

XXXXXX

Back in Tranquility, Gina was helping Lifeline get to the hospital in the wee hours of the night to help the femme scan one of the medical vehicles in the parking lot-an all-terrain search and rescue vehicle customized from Hummer. It was a treat for the nerdy girl to see Lifeline's body shift and reshape itself like liquid, a marvel Kevin told her about from his own experience in seeing Skyfire scan and change into her Terran mode. She inquired about the specifics on the scanning process as Lifeline drove her, Sara and Sureshock home.

"I never get tired of the surprises you guys dish out even after knowing you for so long." Gina smiled, leaning back in her seat. "How does it feel changing forms like that?"

"Honestly, it doesn't feel much different. It's like how you humans grow taller, only it takes a few seconds for us. You notice the changes, but it feels natural." Lifeline said.

"It's so easy to forget how different you guys are from robots." Gina sighed and looked out the window. "Amazing how something so small like a soul can change things for an organism."

"Or complicate matters entirely." Lifeline muttered.

"So, Lifeline," Sureshock clapped her hands. "Skyfire seems to be a bit smitten with you."

"Skyfire is an egotistical flyboy who doesn't take his duties seriously." Flashpoint said in a heartbeat. "Contrary to his wild tales, there is nothing special about him aside from his flight and combat skills."

"Rejected," Gina teased. "I take it this isn't the first time he's hit on you?"

"I lost count of how many times she's asked me out. I mean, I'm trying to fix someone's arm, and she just strolls right in and starts dishing out these one-liners like she's at a sports bar. Seriously, you would think she'd have some tact, being from Vos an all." She ranted, her usual professionalism taking a back seat for just a moment.

"Honestly, I wouldn't have her any other way. She's a good guy, if a little overbearing." Gina said. "Though, she's a bit desperate. You'd think she'd know how to treat a lady."

"To be honest, Skyfire has only been with one other spouse." Flashpoint said. "Deadscream."

"Starscream's sister? The former Seeker commander before him?"

"The very same. I don't know the full details, but Deadscream was quite the lovely femme. She was an ace pilot who taught many Seekers in her time, Skyfire included. They got together around the time of Nominus Prime's regime. When Starscream covertly allied the Seekers with the Decepticons without her approval, Deadscream was killed by Starscream in a fit of rage."

"Oh dear." Gina said, feeling sorry for Skyfire's lost love. Lifeline shot down any sympathy forming for the dead femme.

"Don't feel sorry for her. Somewhere down the line, Deadscream started changing. She had a hair trigger temper to begin with, but it only got worse when her mental state became unhinged. She abused her Seekers on a daily basis, and was especially cruel to Starscream, with Jetfire being treated only marginally better. He and Skyfire hauled aft before Vos fell." She said. "It was the first time I've seen Jetfire so scared. One minute she can be cold and calm, then in a nano-second she'll tear off your head in a blind rage for no reason at all. There were even rumors of her being a cannibal."

"Primus, even Starscream's sister was an asshole." Gina shook her head. "Well, at least we won't have to worry about her, right Flashpoint?"

"Yes. She's gone for good." Flashpoint said, but Gina was able to detect a sense of uncertainty in her voice.

XXXXXX

" **Alert! Alert! Unknown energy signal detected!"**

Teletran-1's sudden alerts sent Optimus and Ratchet into action. The medic quickly typed down the reaction commands to see what they were dealing with. "You think its Ore-13?"

"Possibly." Optimus answered.

As soon as the readings came up, Ratchet couldn't help but feel a little disappointed at the results. "It's not energon. It's…something else. Hmm," Ratchet took a closer look at the screen. "Why do these readings look familiar?"

"Because we've had something similar before." Optimus studied the data and nodded. "Yes, these are very similar to the readings we got from Mjolnir and Gandiva."

"You mean it's another ancient weapon?" Ratchet asked. He looked at the signal's location. "It's coming from Belka, near the same region Bulkhead and Ironhide went to last year."

"Curious." Optimus muttered.

"Want me to send in Jazz's team?"

"No, have Tomahawk's unit take this one. It's time to see how well they can work together in this setting."

"Is that wise? I'm confident in Tomahawk's leadership abilities, but Rodimus and Sunstreaker together make for a…volatile concoction." The medic eloquently said.

"I believe that they can work together when the situation calls for it. Right now, I'm more worried about what the Decepticons have uncovered this time around." Optimus said. "The last thing we need is Megatron obtaining a weapon equal to Nightshade's in power."

XXXXXX

Terra was a world with many mysteries, this was something that both Autobots and Decepticons learned early on upon landing on the planet. The most prevalent among them were the many secrets that could change the tide of the war, such as the powerful weapons of old that made mortals into gods.

In the land of Belka, north of the Waldreich Mountains, the Autobots Bulkhead and Ironhide discovered a temple, in which they discovered the first dolems still awake on this world. The human girl Annie would also come upon the hammer Mjolnir, which bonded with her. A weapon that made a man into a god among his people and made his name known to all across Europa.

But that wasn't the only temple dedicated to the Norsemen. Farther north of the Aesir temple, there is another temple dedicated to the Vanir tribe, which had merged with the Aesir tribe through marriage. Whereas the Aesir temple was the resting place of Mjolnir, this temple also held another weapon of great power.

"Lousy piece of slag." Skywarp kicked aside a piece of scorched armor, wadding through the remains of the golem he and Thundercracker just took down. "I swear, these things get more and more annoying every time we run into them."

"Tell me something we don't know." Thundercracker groaned, sitting atop a boulder.

"How long is Megatron going to take in there?" Skywarp asked, glancing at the destroyed doorway his leader went through to obtain the treasures within. "I'm freezing my wings off here!"

"Lord Megatron will be out when he's ready, traitor." Demolishor said gruffly, glaring at Skywarp. "Now be quiet or I'll put you down."

Skywarp glared at Demolishor. "Listen you half brained-"

"Skywarp, just don't." Thundercracker held his partner back and sat back down. "It's not worth getting sent back to the brig for."

High above them three Cons, Tomahawk hovered over their position in her alt mode, watching them from above.

" _Tomahawk, do you have a visual on the weapon?"_ Asked Lifeline over the comm.

"Negative. I only see Skywarp, Thundercracker and Demolishor. I think Megatron's inside the temple." Tomahawk said.

Back in the snowy canyon leading to the temple grounds, Rodimus, Sunstreaker and Lifeline were hiding behind cover watching and waiting.

"I can't see a damn thing with Demolishor's iron ass in the way." Rodimus whispered. "Maybe if we can get a closer look…"

"Don't try it. They'll spot you before you can even get within breathing distance of them." Lifeline said.

"But we can't let them get the weapon-or whatever it is they're digging up." Sunstreaker whispered.

"Yes, we can." She replied. "Let them dig up our prize for us. Then we move in."

The Cons heard the thumping of heavy footsteps within the temple's entrance hall and stood up as their leader left the temple. Megatron stepped out into the morning sunlight, a large spear in his hand. It was made of solid gold and covered in ancient runs that glowed in his hand. Megatron grinned and held his prize up.

"Behold," He said grandiosely. "The spear of Odin himself-the mighty Gungnir."

"It looks glorious, sir." Demolishor said.

Thundercracker rolled his eyes. "Kiss ass."

"This spear is what made Odin king of the Belkan highlands. With its power, I can finally end this power struggle between myself and Prime."

"Like hell, Megatron!" Rodimus came dashing out of the trees, firing bolts of electrostatic energy from the pipes on his arms. He managed to hit Demolishor in the back before Thundercracker and Skywarp opened fire on him. Sunstreaker and Lifeline ran out of cover to support him, and Tomahawk descended from above to provide air support.

"Oh Primus, not her." Thundercracker groaned upon seeing Tomahawk.

Tomahawk bombarded the two Seeker with rapid fire laser bolts from the gun on her underside, while Demoslihor spun around and collapsed into his tank mode. He shot pulse blasts up at her, which she dodged, and the Seekers ran to attack the two Autobots from advancing further.

"Stand aside!" Megatron commanded and raised his spear. "Let's see what Gungnir can do."

Rodimus saw Megatron throw the spear at him and jumped aside before it could impale him. However, the spear suddenly released a powerful energy wave that slammed into him and blasted him head first into the cliff face.

"Hot Rod!" Sunstreaker yelled out.

Megatron smirked and called Gungnir back to his hand. He raised the spear and fired a bolt of energy that created an explosion that blew Sunstreaker and Skywarp apart, sending them in different directions. Another slash sent another energy wave surging throughout the area, blowing everyone away from the sheer concussive force of the energy.

"Amazing. Let's see Nightshade compete against this!" He cackled. "Now let's christain it with Autobot blood."

He pointed the spear at Rodimus, but two missiles shot by Tomahawk stopped him. Megatron hissed and threw his spear, which moved like lightning across the sky before exploding right next to Tomahawk. She was blasted out of the sky, and she crashed to the ground in her robot mode, stunned and dazed from the explosion. Megatron was about to launch another attack when Rodimus grabbed him from behind (which was difficult enough thanks to their difference in size).

"Hey, Megs!"

"Get off me! Megatron rumbled, trying to throw him off. He paused when he felt Rodimus' body start to heat up. "What?"

Rodimus grinned. "Flame on!"

This was a little design quirk that Rodimus had discovered during a mission to liberate a world from Decepticon control. By increasing the temperature of his endoskeleton, the air around him became superheated, and one spark was enough to create an explosive burst hot enough to melt steel. Of course, Megatron only suffered light burns, but he lost his hold on Gungnir in the blaze.

"Tomahawk, get it!" Lifeline said as she ran to aid Rodimus.

Tomahawk sprinted for the spear, extending the cutting blades on her forearms over her hands. Megatron also dived for the spear and managed to reach it first, snatching it up and swinging the weapon at Tomahawk. Their weapons clashed in a bright flash and deafening boom followed by a shockwave that blasted them apart. Megatron landed on his back Gungnir stabbing into the ground near his head. He went to grab it, but froze when he saw cracks appear along the shaft.

"No, no, no damn you!" He growled.

"And they say lightning never strikes twice." Rodimus quipped as Lifeline helped him to his feet. "Don't fall to pieces over it, Megs. It happens to everyone."

"Heavens above, just shut up." Lifeline groaned.

Tomahawk's cutting blade hitting Gungnir during its energy discharge released vibrations that nearly shattered the spear. It was fracturing by the second, and if Megatron even handled it roughly, it was going to fall apart.

The other Decepticons cautiously backed away from their enraged leader, who was glaring murderously at the Autobots.

"I think we overstayed our welcome." Lifeline said. She pulled Rodimus up and called the Ark. "Teletran, ground bridge, now!"

"You'll not escape me!" Megatron roared and transformed, driving at the Autobots at full speed, shooting purple fusion blasts from his cannon.

"Come on, Teletran, bridge us out!" Sunstreaker said impatiently, shooting his heat cannon at Megatron's alt mode.

The ground bridge appeared near them and Lifeline and Sunstreaker quickly dragged their friends into the portal. Just as Sunstreaker managed to get Tomahawk in behind him, Megatron transformed and leapt at them. He rammed into Sunstreaker, punching the Autobot down before grabbing Lifeline and throwing her back out of the portal onto the ground. Grabbing Lifeline by the neck, Megatron pointed his fusion cannon in her face.

"I'm not leaving here without one of your heads!" He snarled and powered his cannon up. Rodimus leapt onto his back and used his weight to drag Megatron to the ground.

"One more for the road!" Rodimus said as his body erupted in a pillar of flames that doused Megatron's face in searing hot flames, making him reel back and howl. He quickly took Lifeline's hand and pulled her back into the bridge, giving them a mocking two-fingered salute as the ground bridge closed.

Demolishor ran over to his leader. "Sir, are you alright?"

"Does he look alright? His face was just doused in fire!" Skywarp screamed.

"Shut up and help me get him back to base!" Demolishor growled and called the base. "HQ, get Knockout on standby, Lord Megatron is wounded."

He had the Seekers help Megatron to his feet, but the scarred warlord pushed them away and marched back into the snowy wastes, uncaring of the cold air making his burns sting. He was going to make those Autobots hurt as much as he was one day! He swore upon Mortilus himself!

XXXXXX

"So we finally found another ancient weapon used by humans in the distant past, and your first inclination was to destroy it?" Prowl asked Tomahawk after she finished her report on their mission. "I don't know whether to be impressed or angry."

"Either way, you'll still have the same expression." Rodimus said from his spot on the medical berth. Tomahawk threw him a look that made him shut up.

"With all due respect, Prowl, Megatron was trying to blast us into atoms with some quasi-mystical spear that could punch through mountains. Destroying it was the most we could do in that situation." Lifeline said.

"I am guiltless in this." Sunstreaker said.

Prowl forced back a groan. "That's not the point."

"As much as I would've liked to secure the weapon, as long as the Decepticons don't have it, I'm satisfied." Optimus said. "And thanks to the efforts of Wheeljack, we have located another Ore-13 deposit."

"Yes, I suppose that is a silver lining." Prowl said. Optimus looked at the new additions to the team.

"You all did well for your first mission on Terra, but there is a lot you must learn." He reminded them. "And I'm sure that by working with your human allies, you will acclimate to this world easier."

He was looking at Sunstreaker as he said this, and Rodimus threw the mech a teasing grin.

"Busted."

"Shut it, Hot Rod." Sunstreaker hissed. Rodimus laughed and glanced at Tomahawk.

"Yo, Tomahawk, you want to head out after this?"

"Rodimus, you still need to rest." Tomahawk gave him a firm glare that kept him rooted to the medical slab. "And Sunstreaker has recon duty with Prowl and Bumblebee."

"Frag me!" Sunstreaker cried out.

'Sucks to be him.' Lifeline thought, knowing that Rodimus and Sunstreaker will be subjected to Prowl's lengthy explanation in Terran traffic laws.

Skyfire strolled up to her with a wave. "Hey, Lifeline."

"No, Skyfire."

"But I didn't say anything!" She whined.

"Okay, fine." Lifeline looked up at the taller femme. "What do you want?"

"Do you-"

"No."

"Come on, you're literally not doing anything now. I'm totally free, so why don't we spend our free time taking a tour of the nice blue planet we live on?"

Lifeline gave her a firm look, and though she lacked a visible facial features, Skyfire was trying to looking reassuring and welcome for her sake. The medic knew she wasn't going to stop until she went with her at least once (which was a credible Skyfire courting technique used for generations), granted…it would be smart to see more of the world she was going to be fighting on for the near future.

Thinking she would regret this, Lifeline gave in to Skyfire's pitiful pleas. "Fine, I'll go with you."

"Yes!" Skyfire threw an arm around her shoulders. "You won't regret it, girl!"

"Don't touch me."

"Sorry!"

Needless to say, it was a long night for Lifeline and the best one of her life for Skyfire. The rest of the night would be noisy and hectic for the new team of Autobots living in the Ark, but one thing was certain-it was a welcome change for the Autobots of Team Prime.


	23. Cage of Eden

Chapter 23-Cage of Eden

When one flies for a living, it pays to know how to read the weather. Nature is neither your friend nor your enemy, it just does what it wants to do, and you try to work with it, not against it. That being said, trying to fly through a hurricane over the Pacific is that one time where you shouldn't try to fight against nature. Unfortunately for Thundercracker, Decepticons were gluttons for punishment, whether they wanted it or not.

It was a rare encounter between four flyers. Still on probation by Megatron, Thundercracker and Skywarp were running their third recon mission of the day, during a thunderstorm of all things. Thundercracker was on the verge of tearing out Skywarp's vocoder after he made another terrible joke about his name and the weather when they suddenly ran into the Autobots Skyfire and Tomahawk.

Since the Autobots hadn't detected them yet, Thundercracker was devising a sneak attack on them, but Skywarp, ever the less strategy savvy brute, threw any planning out of the window and teleported right on top of them shooting right at them. He caught them by surprise, naturally, but their surprise quickly went away as Skyfire was on their ass in a heartbeat. This led to Thundercracker fighting Tomahawk, who was armed with a scarily impressive assortment of missiles and dual laser cannons.

'Why do I get stuck saving this dumb frag's ass?' Thundercracker angrily thought. 'The dumb one _would_ get the teleportation power.'

The dark gray storm clouds were alight with explosions from the fighting cybertronians. Skywarp was having a hard time fighting Tomahawk, who was surprisingly capable at high altitude combat despite her helicopter mode. She was engaged in a game of cat and mouse with the outlier and he was getting sick of playing games with her. Eventually, Skywarp had enough and transformed.

"Screw this! Thundercracker, you take the damn chopper!" Skywarp growled. "Skyfire's mine!"

"Right, because you did so well against her the last time." Thundercracker spat and turned his attention to Tomahawk.

"Good to see you haven't lost your mean streak." Tomahawk said, firing her laser cannons at him.

"You try being nice with a moron for a wingman!" Thundercracker changed forms and fired his arm cannons at her, forcing her back.

Tomahawk dodged his laser blasts and flew right at him, transforming to her bipedal mode and flexing her right arm to bring out her melee weapon, a durabilyum pincer claw. Lightning flashed through the sky, followed by a deep rumble through the clouds. As they fought, no one realized that fighting in the middle of a thunderstorm while being made of metal was a serious health hazard. Skyfire was the only one to realize this.

"Hawk, we need to bail!" Skyfire called out. "The storm's getting worse."

"Didn't peg you for a coward, Skyfire!" Skywarp teleported behind her and opened fire, missing by a few inches as Skyfire spun around and shot a particle blast back at him. "You afraid of a little rain?"

"It's not the rain I'm worried about." Skyfire replied, teleporting out of Skywarp's sight. Skywarp spun around, thinking she was going to flank him, but she didn't. She tricked him, teleporting only a few inches to where he was looking, exposing his back. Skywarp gulped when he felt the barrel of her particle cannon press against his back and glanced back. "Made you look."

Skyfire was about to light him up when a lightning bolt hit Skywarp directly in the chest. The bolt lasted only a millisecond, but the damage done was immense. One lightning bolt was hot enough to rival the surface of the sun for just a few seconds, and that heat surged through Skywarp's body, electrocuting his systems and blasting a red hot hole into his chest. His eyes went dark as he went into stasis lock and fell into the clouds, disappearing from view.

"Rule 1 of Terra: Don't piss off mother nature." Skyfire remarked and looked around for Tomahawk. "Hawk, where are you?"

Tomahawk and Thundercracker were still fighting in the middle of the storm. Thundercracker had a hold on her arm, but she wrenched her arm free and elbowed him in the face.

"Ow, my nose!"

"Don't be a protoform!"

"Hawk, we need to go! Like, right now!" Skyfire flew after them, yelping as another thunderclap crackled next to her. When they didn't stop fighting, she sighed and changed into her jet mode. "Looks like mama's gonna have to use the belt."

She fired a single missile at them, forcing them apart when it exploded right between them. Tomahawk changed into her alt mode on reflex and "glared" at Skyfire.

"What the hell was that for, you idiot!" She yelled over the heavy rain that pelted her form.

"We need to bounce before we all get zapped by the bearded man in the sky." Skyfire said. "This storm's getting worse and we're right in the thick of it."

"I know one thing that's not right." Thundercracker pointed his guns at Skyfire. "You being alive!"

"Don't even try it!" Tomahawk rammed into Thundercracker and knocked him away before shooting her missiles at him.

Skyfire moved to retrieve Tomahawk from the fight, but Comettor gave his panicked warning. "Skyfire, it's too late! I an already feel the air heating up. There's going to be another lightning str-"

The clouds swirled around them in a manner that was anything but natural, and in a similarly unnatural display of natural power, multiple lightning bolts were fired from the clouds, hitting Tomahawk and Thundercracker. Too slow to react, they were engulfed in a violent discharge of electricity that paralyzed them on the spot. But instead of plunging to earth like Skywarp, the second the bolt vanished…so did they. And Skyfire was left alone in the sky without a clue as to what happened.

XXXXXX

"The storm's getting worse."

Jetta grunted in response to her brother's words. The weather had been acting strange lately, with random downpours wreaking havoc on the plains and making hunting an unneeded hazard (more so than usual). She was sitting on the branch of a tree, safe from most of the heavy rain that fell upon the forest thanks to the thick branches hanging over her. Her auburn hair was slightly wet and clung to her bare back, blowing slightly from the cool wind. Her brother, Fabian, stood next to her, balancing on the balls of his feet as he sniffed the air.

"I smell something." Fabian said.

"Is it food?" Jetta grumbled, leaning on her spear. "Because I'm about ready to hunt down a leopard at this point."

"No, this is something else. Something unnatural."

Jetta frowned up at him. "What do you smell?"

"Oil and metal." He said, glancing up at the sky. "The rain's making it hard to identify it properly, but I definitely smell metal, along with smoke and possibly flames. Maybe there's-"

There was a bright flash of lightning, followed by two large forms crashed through the tree right next to them. Jetta and Fabian leapt onto another tree as it was uprooted by one of the large bodies and watched the giant bodies hit the ground and roll to a stop.

"What was that?" Fabian asked with wide eyes

Jetta narrowed her eyes and gripped her spear. "Trouble."

XXXXXX

Thundercracker woke up to the sound of birds chirping. As his audio receptors recalibrated, his hearing became clearer and he struggled to get that annoying chirping away from his head.

"Go away, stupid bird."

"I'm not a bird."

Thundercracker's eyes popped open and saw Tomahawk leaning over him. He gave a yelp that _totally_ wasn't feminine in any way and shot up. "Get away from me!"

"You're welcome." Tomahawk said and stood up. "In case you're wondering, we got zapped and fell to earth. We're in a forest of some kind, but I don't really know where in the world we are."

Thundercracker looked around. They were in the middle of a ravaged part of the forest where they landed. The part of the forest they were standing in was foggy and humid, with fog covering much of their surroundings. He could see the crushed trees and deep trenches they dug in the ground made from their crash landing.

"Well," He said, standing up and brushing dirt from his legs. "We are definitely in a place we're not supposed to be."

Very astute of you, Thundercracker." Tomahawk remarked, earning a glare from him.

"Don't get snippy with me. I recall your partner yelling at you to fall back." Thundercracker crossed his arms. "You didn't so much as spare him a glance."

"And you weren't exactly trying to leave either." She replied. "What's your excuse?"

"Decepticons don't run, they conquer." Thundercracker said haughtily. "I'm going to find Skywarp and have him get me the hell out of here. Feel free to hang out with the fleshies in this pit."

Tomahawk started when she saw the blue Seeker start to transform. "Wait, don't!"

Thundercracker transformed and flew into the air, but as soon as he broke past the trees, he was seized with pain, his body freezing up midair and he lost control of his aeronautical controls. His thrusters cut out and he began falling, crashing back down through the trees and hitting the ground nose first. Tomahawk ran over to him as he transformed back and punched a tree trunk.

"What the hell did you do to me?" He sneered.

"Nothing! I can't fly out of here either." She said honestly. "I tried to fly out of here as soon as I woke up, but the minute I get a few feet off the ground, I stall and fall back down. I have no idea what's causing it."

"And you didn't detect any devices? EMPs, inhibitor webs, nothing?" Thundercracker asked.

"None that I could see or sense. And our comms are out as well, so don't expect to be making any phone calls."

"Frag me." He grumbled and leaned against a tree, making the bark groan from his weight pressing on it. "I'm stuck with you now?"

"It would seem so." She sighed.

"So what do we do? Live here as hermits until we start to rust and fall apart?"

"We could try finding the humans that live here." Tomahawk said and pointed at the trail of smoke rising in the distance. "If that's made by humans, then we could probably figure out where we are and work our way up from there."

"Who's this 'us'? When did we become a team?" He huffed.

"When we got glitch slapped by nature and stranded in some forest with no way out and no way to call for help." Tomahawk replied and marched past Thundercracker, dragging him behind her. "Now work those legs, Crackerjack."

"Don't call me that!" He hissed, but followed her anyway. This planet was going to kill him one day.

XXXXXX

When Thundercracker and Tomahawk decided to fly the rest of the way in their alt modes at low altitude, they made another discovery about how hazardous flying around this place was-dragons. Mostly native to Europa and Usea, these dragons were adolescents, just a bit larger than a tank in size but were no less dangerous. They filled the sky above the forest, attacking anything they considered prey-and that included the two cybertronians. It only took a few rounds from Tomahawk to scare them off but not without attaining a few deep cuts in their armor from their claws and teeth. This led to Tomahawk making the decision to go on foot to avoid running into an adult dragon that could wreck their shit in seconds.

"This is fragging stupid." Thundercracker grumbled, cutting down a branch in his face. "I should be back at base right now chugging down a cold drink, but no, that stupid slaghead Skywarp just had to try his hand at a kill count. When I see him again I'm gonna shove my fist so far up his-"

"Thundercracker, please, save the ranting for later. You'll waste less energon that way." Tomahawk said.

"Don't act like you're on my side!" Thundercracker yelled, whirling around to point a finger at her face. "It's because I tangled with you scrapheaps that I'm stuck here in this damn hellhole!"

"Stop acting hysterical!" She hissed. "And keep your voice down. We're almost at the human settlement and we can't just waltz in there in our natural forms."

"Then we'll use our holomatters. I'm sure we both have enough energy to use them for the rest of the day." He said.

After changing into their alt modes, which were more than a little cramped with all the trees around them, they generated their holomatters.

Holomatters were designed to be reflective of how a cybertronian saw themselves based on their knowledge of the species they were masquerading as. Tomahawk's avatar looked like a female bi-plane pilot with fair skin and auburn hair clad in an old school aviator's suit with goggles and everything else. Honestly, she looked like an old black and white movie star dressed as Amelia Earheart.

Thundercracker's avatar was a bit more outlandish. If Tomahawk's avatar was too out of date, then his avatar was too modern. He looked like a teen punk rock band leader, with a sleeveless black muscle shirt, tight leather pants and pale skin with spiky blue tinged black hair. Tomahawk took one look at him and despite her best efforts, a snort escaped as she tried not to laugh. She looked away when he glared at her.

"Nice widow's peak, Thundercracker." She snickered.

"Shut it." He grumbled, knowing that he was definitely watching too much human TV with Knockout if this was the result. "Let's just go learn where the hell are we."

When they left the forest, they found themselves walking down a smoothed dirt path cutting through the trees. Following the path, they soon came upon a village in the distance. It was a small little community with houses here and there. The people wore animal skins, but that hardly seemed to really bother them considering most of the adults looked rather athletic and well-toned.

'How are these people not cold?' Tomahawk wondered. She turned and saw a young boy playing by the sign post and waved to him. "Hello there!"

The boy spun around, eyes widening as he saw people he didn't recognize. Tomahawk had Thundercracker stay back as she held her hands up to show that she wasn't a threat.

"Sorry to scare you, but we need help." She said. "Could you point us towards where your town leader is? Someone we can talk to? We're desperately in need of help and-"

The boy gave a frightened yelp and, to the surprised of the disguised Cybertronians, his body suddenly morphed into a small grey-furred wolf pup. The pup-boy dashed back towards his house, leaving the stunned bots behind.

D-did that kid just turn into a puppy?" Thundercracker stammered. "Oh, I hate this planet so much."

"We're certainly not in Osea anymore, are we?" Tomahawk remarked, still trying to process what happened.

"Why good morning!"

"Ah!" The holo-avatars jumped as a voice spoke to them from behind. They spun around and saw a young girl smiling at them.

"Hello, you two don't look like you're from around here. Are you two lost?" The girl asked. She, like the rest of her people, wore little more than thin furs over her body. Her arms, legs and stomach were exposed, and they were defined and toned, like that of an athlete. Her auburn hair was short, stopping at her shoulders and her blue eyes were like deep pools, not leaving them for a second.

Tomahawk quickly gathered herself and introduced them. "Um, hi. I'm…Amelia, and this is my friend Rick."

"Really?" Thundercracker droned.

"We're pilots, and we crashed here last night. We were wondering if we could find some help from your village leader, if you have one." Tomahawk continued.

"Well you've ran into the right girl. I'm Lucinda and welcome to my village!" The girl smiled. "Follow me and I'll introduce you to our leaders. Where did you two come from, exactly? Those clothes aren't common around these parts."

Tomahawk and Thundercracker glanced at each other as Lucinda led them towards her village. Tomahawk decided to get the conversation going to have some idea of where they are. "Um, we're from a place far, far away. It's a land called Osea. It's across the ocean, and we were flying back home when this freak storm caused us to crash."

"Oh, that explains your strange clothes. I've heard of Osea from the other tribes, but that storm is something new. The weather in Karda is rather pleasant around this time of year."

"Karda?" Thundercracker repeated.

"Yeah, Karda, the Land of Beasts as visitors call it, though we don't get them anymore." Lucinda said before continuing down the road. "Not exactly a place folks like yourselves should be running around in, but I think you two will manage!"

Lucinda's peppy demeanor was in stark contrast to the growing unease the two aliens felt. It didn't take a genius like Wheeljack to know that this island was a bad place to be.

XXXXXX

According to Lucinda, the island they were on was called Karda, which was somewhere in the Ceres Ocean, between Azteca and Europa. Neither Tomahawk nor Thundercracker really knew where this island was, or that it even existed. Honestly, Karda, despite being a rather large island for its size, went throughout the War for Terra without so much as a glance from the warring cybertronians, despite the fact that there were plenty of untapped energon deposits deep underground.

The people living here lived a semi-nomadic lifestyle that was more primitive than the more advanced human communities. Here they lived in hoses made of wood and wore light clothes made of animal furs and leathers. They wore just enough to cover their modesty, but nothing more, and they either wore light footwear or went barefoot. Their tools were also made from wood or stone, and their weapons were most likely the only pieces of metal in their position. Thundercracker thought humanity as a whole was primitive, but these people took it to a completely different level.

Looking to his left, he saw a woman change into a larger, muscular version of her human form that was covered in gray fur with a lupine tail. Not too far away, two men changed into giant wolves almost the size of a pony. Thundercracker blinked and was about to inquire as to what the hell all this was when Tomahawk put a hand on his shoulder. She shook her head. Now wasn't the time.

The house where the tribal leaders lived was a little larger than the other houses, but not as extravagant as one would think. Lucinda knocked on the door and seconds later a tall man with a lean build and long, slicked back golden hair greeted them. His green eyes brightened as he gave the newcomers a smile.

"Lucinda, I see you've brought us some visitors. It's been a while since we've had people from the outside." The man held out his hand. "I'm Brendan. Welcome to our valley home. I take it you come from one of the other tribes?"

"Actually, these two are humans. They've been stranded here during the storm last night and they're in need of help." Lucinda said.

"Well, you've come to the right place." Brendan said. "Please, come in."

He allowed Tomahawk and Thundercracker into his home, which had two floors with three rooms. The place was nice and warm, very homely and serene. Even Thundercracker had to admit that it was a nice looking place. Brendan escorted them to the living room, where his wife was waiting for them by the fireplace. Once everyone was situated, they explained their situation to the couple as best they could, which wasn't hard given that it was partially true.

"So you were at the heart of that terrible storm last night. I'm surprised you two are still able to walk. The winds and lightning storms were absolutely appalling." Said Azelea, Brendan's wife. She also had dark blonde hair and though she was a little shorter than her husband, she was just as fit dressed in thin fur clothes that left most of her body bare. "Well, you're welcome to stay with us for as long as you like, though I have no idea how you plan to get back to your land."

"We're…trying to sort that problem out." Tomahawk said nervously. "But this is the first time I've ever heard of Karda. Is it purposefully hidden?"

"No, but we don't advertise out home's existence to just anybody. Karda is an out of the way island populated entirely by people like us. I imagine that we'd agitate certain parties in the wider world if news of our existence got out at large." Azelea said smiling. "But we aren't too worried. Here in our valley, all are safe under the watchful eye of our beloved goddess."

"So you guys are all espers, then." Thundercracker said, looking around. "Is the whole transformation thing common around here?"

"Why, of course!" Brendan's appearance changed as fluidly as the other shifters. He grew taller and sprouted russet brown fur all over his body. His fingers extended into claws ad his face grew slightly more lupine, though not enough to mask his human features.

Azalea's transformation was no different as she also grew russet fur with white patches on her neck and chest, and her body growing enough to make her fur clothes strain against her bulk. Honestly, Tomahawk wondered if Azelea even cared if her clothes were ripped apart by her increased muscle mass. The people living here were far from conservative.

Thundercracker was trying to process how smooth the transformations were. Thanks to Knockout's casual Fridays at the drive-in movie theaters (which he would sometimes drag Thundercracker to) he saw werewolf movies in which humans would go through a dramatic series of painful twisting of flesh, violent convulsions and snapping of bones upon changing into their monstrous forms. There were no groans of pain, no screams of agony or people exploding out of their skin-just smooth shifting from one form to another. It was like watching an organic version of humans transforming like Cybertronians and it was as creepy as it was fascinating.

"We beast-kin have lived here in Nyx for generations, longer than any of our elders remember." Azelea said, sounding as sweet and kind as she was in her human form. "Our ancestors came here to escape persecution from the humans who have hunted our kind down relentlessly. We are the wolf clan, while there are other tribes of beast-kin who call this land home; leopards, cheetahs, tigers, even mice. We are espers who have adapted to this land, evolved to the point where our powers are hereditary. We became the beasts of Karda's ecosystems but retained our humanity."

"That's amazing. I only seen espers with different powers, even twins are completely different." Tomahawk said. She had learned a lot about this world mainly from Bumblebee and Gina, who explained that esper powers varied wildly from person to person. Even inheriting powers from a parent was considered rare.

"Yes, from the smallest child to the oldest adult, we all have a little bit of wolf within us." Brendan nodded. "Karda is a tough place to live in, even us Beast-kin have a hard time handling some of the larger predators like dragons and their Wyvern cousins. But we have found a protector and provider in the form of our guardian goddess, Lilith."

Brendan pointed to the towering statue hanging above the fireplace. It was a statue depicting a beautiful woman's face in the middle of a snake's body coiling around her head. She was inhumanly beautiful, but displayed a coldness and her eyes were that of a snake's unblinking slitted gaze. Brendan explained that Lilith's watchful gaze, her very presence, keeps the worst of Karda's vicious animal-life at bay. She had protected them for nearly a decade now, and it was considered to be the most prosperous era of their tribe. Of course, Tomahawk and Thundercracker were skeptical of that claim, but neither chose to denounce the religious beliefs of their hosts.

"Then if we try to leave, we'll be attacked by the big baddies out there?" Tomahawk sighed.

"Ha! We can handle a couple of fur balls." Thundercracker said haughtily.

"Possibly, but Karda is home to a rather large amount of dragon species, and even in this day and age, full grown dragons are very dangerous to humans." Azelea said.

"You're welcome to stay with us for as long as you need until you're able to call for help, if that's possible." Brendan offered. "It's almost sundown, and you don't want to be out after dark."

Thundercracker nearly said no, but Tomahawk cut her off, saying that they would be thankful, putting strong emphasis on the word to hammer it in that they had no other choice. He held back a scathing remark and crossed his arms in aggravation. Once again, he was reminded of why he hated Autobots so much-pushy slagheaps.

"That's wonderful! We'll get your rooms prepared right away." Azalea smiled and led the two back outside. "In the meantime, I'll show you around the valley. Can't have you two getting lost now."

Thundercracker frowned. "That'd be-"

"Gracious!" Tomahawk cut in and pushed him out of the house. Thundercracker managed to punched her elbow before he was pushed outside.

Once his visitors were gone, Brendan's smile disappeared and his jovial aura faded to a more serious tone. He faced the statue of Lilith and bowed to it. "It's done, my lady. The intruders will be kept here."

" _Good,"_ A raspy voice hissed from the statue, whose eyes glowed faintly. " _Send a search party to the forest. If their proxies are here, then their real bodies are nearby. Scout the surrounding area, leave no stone unturned, even if you have to uproot every tree in this forest!"_

Brendan nodded. "As you command, goddess."

XXXXXX

The day went by quickly for Tomahawk and Thundercracker as they were taken around a tour through the village. It was astonishing at how peaceful and happy they were, as though they were living in a paradise instead of a savage land. Azalea had even shown them the fighting arena, where tribe members would test their strength or suitors would duel for the hand of a mate. Seeing two beast-kin fighting fiercely in their hybrid forms like actual wolves hammered in how savage and beastly these people could be despite their outward appearance. These people had long since stopped calling themselves humans and now saw themselves as part of Karda's animal kingdom.

Night had come and Azelea had placed the two inside one of the spare rooms in her home. It was lavishly furnished, not to the point of wealth, but enough to make one feel at home and safe. Even as fake humans the two Cybertronians didn't mind spending the night here if their circumstances were different.

"If you need anything, just call me." Azelea said. Tomahawk nodded.

"We will, thank you." She said politely. Once Azelea was gone, she glared at Thundercracker, who was lying in a hammock on the other side of the room. "What the hell is your problem?"

"My problem? Did you forget we're on opposite sides of the civil war? We're not supposed to be hanging out like we're on a camping trip, sweetheart. What do you think is my problem?" He grumbled.

"For Prime's sake, could you not be like that right now? We're in no position to be fighting, especially since we can't even fly out of here and call for help." Tomahawk said.

"It was your fault to begin with!"

"No, it was the fault of your boneheaded partner." She replied. "You certainly like keeping unintelligent company, do you?"

"Says the femme partnered with Skyfire." Thundercracker retorted. "How much shanix did Prime pay you to fly in the same airspace as that blowhard?"

Tomahawk stomped up to him, her expression furious. "At least Skyfire is competent, more so than your precious leader, Starscream! How can you work under a coward like him?"

"Because he is the leader of the Seekers, he is well within his rights to command us, ineffectual though he may be. And as a Seeker, I am loyal to him as our code dictates." Thundercracker stood up to properly glare at him. "More so than I can say for you and Skyfire, traitors that you are."

"Don't start that with me. We quit the Seekers because Deadscream was a psycho."

"But you would've had a chance at greatness with us. If you had just stayed, you would've lived great lives as the top of the galactic food chain."

"As Decepticons? We supported them when Zeta Prime ruled, but they lost their luster when they started forcing people to join and started a war!" She screamed at him. "Was leveling Praxus in the name of freedom? Or torching Ky-Alexia? I head you were a part of that squadron that bombed that hot spot near Nova Cronum-"

"SHUT UP!" Thundercracker roared. His avatar flickered like a bad image as his concentration faltered. Tomahawk was quiet as she studied him, trying to figure him out.

"What happened to you, Thundercracker? You were no killer. You maybe egotistical and arrogant, but mindless killing has never been your thing." She said softly. "What happened to that mech who protected me from bullies at the aerial academy in Vos? Where was that mech who helped me get over my fear of flying over the skyscrapers in Iacon?"

Thundercracker's expression softened and he looked away. "Nothing happened. I joined the Decepticons of my own free will. It was a time of revolution, we were fighting the oppression of the Prime and her token senate."

"Don't give me that slag!" Tomahawk hissed with such scorn it made him take a step back. "You don't get to use that excuse when Cons all over the galaxy are ravaging entire worlds for the sake of conquest. They won when Megatron killed Zeta. But you fools took it a step further and torched the very world you professed to save. Cybertron is dead, Thundercracker, and the only way you Cons can mask your failure is by strutting around, waving your guns like a bunch of second-rate Quintessons."

The two holo-avatars, once friends during their days in the Vosian Aerospace Academy, glared at each other as enemies. Centuries of pent up frustration and pain came to the surface and neither bot was afraid of hurting the other's feelings. Fortunately, their argument was cut short when the door creaked open.

"Go away!" Thundercracker snapped. "We're busy…"

He trailed off when he saw that it wasn't Azelea, but a violet furred man with a cloak over his muscular form. Thundercracker immediately rushed forward and attacked the intruder without a second thought. He threw a punch at the man, but the intruder spun around his fist and flanked him in a single move. Thundercracker threw a kick at him, but the man grabbed his arm and twisted it behind his back.

"I'm not here to hurt you!" The man whispered. "I'm a friend."

"I'm friends with no human!" Thundercracker growled. He made his avatar intangible, allowing the man to pass through him, before slipping behind the intruder and grabbing him in an arm lock. "Who are you and who sent you?"

"Thundercracker, stop! You're hurting him." Tomahawk said

"This guy was sent to kill us, Tomahawk!" he said. "I knew we shouldn't have trusted these humans."

"No, I'm not here to harm either of you," The man grunted. "I'm here to warn you."

"About what?" Tomahawk asked.

"A-about our tribe's leaders. They know, the entire village knows that you're not human. Right now they've sent hunters into the forest to search for your real bodies."

Tomahawk and Thundercracker looked at each other in shock. She pulled the man from Thundercracker's hold and helped him to his feet. He took off his cloak and presented himself, a light violet furred wolf-man with a strong physique. He was a head taller than Thundercracker, but the Con was still sizing him up.

"How do you know about us?" tomahawk questioned. Her tone was soft, but firm. Having your cover blown in a land of monsters was serious business. "What's going on?"

"I don't have time to explain, but this village, it's not right anymore." He said urgently. "All I can tell you right now is that these people know you're not human and they're planning to kill you in the forest."

"With what? Spears and claws?" Thundercracker snorted. "You humans don't have any weapons that can hurt us."

"They aren't using weapons, they've set loose a beast that roams the northern plains," He said. "A wyvern."

Thundercracker lost his smiled and looked at the man with wide eyes. "A wyvern? How-forget it, we need to go now!"

"Wait, what's a wyvern?" Tomahawk asked, puzzled by her foe's sudden change in attitude.

"The reason Starscream hates this planet with a passion." The Seeker said and his Holomatter vanished before she could inquire further.

"You must go before we are both discovered." The wolf-man urged her. "My sister and her mate are near your position. They will explain what you need to know."

He turned to leave but, Tomahawk stopped him. "Hold on, what's your name?"

"Sandor."

"I'm Tomahawk." She said. She was still wary of him, but she followed his warnings anyway. "Will you be all right?"

"I will, now go. I will meet you and your companion later."

Tomahawk nodded and disengaged her Holomatter. She wasn't even completely gone before Sandor was out the door, quickly sneaking away from the house and out of the village.

XXXXXX

When their consciousness returned to their bodies, Tomahawk and Thundercracker reverted to their bipedal forms and drew their weapons. It was the middle of the night now, and the forest was pitch black. Even with their optic sensors set to night vision, there wasn't much to see around them.

"Do you see anything?" Tomahawk asked.

"No, not yet at least." Thundercracker said.

"Thundercracker, talk to me. What are we dealing with here?"

"When we first came to this planet, Starscream attempted to set up on an island like this one. We didn't know that it was populated by Wyverns, which are basically wingless dragons. We weren't exactly prepared for them, so they completely tore into us. Starscream lost an arm and I was almost cut in half by those bastards."

"Did you beat them?"

"We killed one and drove off the other ones, but their scales are almost as tough as iron. And I don't even know what this cookie place has in store for us." He said. He heard a rustling in the trees and shushed her. "I think it's coming."

Expecting an attack to come from the ground, neither Autobot nor Decepticon expected the first attack to come from the trees. The Wyvern fell from the treetops, descending upon them with a mighty roar as he swiped its claws at Thundercracker, digging its claws into his chest plate while knocking him back. It roared, but a few rounds from Tomahawk's shoulder guns forced it back.

The wyvern looked like a dragon Tomahawk had seen on TV, but instead of wings on its forelegs, it had four very powerful limbs. It had bright golden scales and a long muscular neck that ended in a large head with a wide mouth full of razor sharp teeth capable of biting through metal. The wyvern hissed at Tomahawk and spun its body around, slamming its tail into her body and sent her crashing into a tree. It charged at her, but she leapt over its body, leaving it to smash right through the tree without even slowing down. It spun around and roared at her, slamming its tail on the ground.

"Are wyverns usually this big?" She asked.

"No, this one's larger than the one that I saw." Thundercracker said, firing his arm cannons at the beast. "Honestly, everything on this island is a walking death trap!"

The wyvern slithered back between the trees to avoid their shots and then weaved back through them with astounding speed for its size. Seeing that it was coming towards her, Tomahawk deployed her arm blades and slashed at its face when it neared her. She scored a shallow cut on its face, but it shrugged off the pain and rammed its head into her chest. She crashed back into a tree, dazed and winded.

Thundercracker leapt in front of her and extended his bayonet, stabbing it into the side of the wyvern's neck. It howled and swerved its head around, managed to snag his arm in its teeth and thrashed its head around, slamming him into the ground. It threw him through a tree trunk and leapt after him, mouth open and jaws ready to crunch his head between them. It wasn't expecting Tomahawk to leap onto its back and stab her cutters directly into its skull. The wyvern roared and stumbled a bit before trying to shake her off, leaving Thundercracker alone.

"Open wide, asshole." He growled and charged the wyvern, shoving his bayonet into its mouth and stabbing the blade into the roof of its mouth, cutting through flesh and into its brain. The two soldiers continued stabbing it until the wyvern's movements slowed and its body fell over, going still.

"Finally, for frag's sake." Thundercracker grunted, pulling his arm out of the wyvern's mouth and winced at the fang stuck in his arm. He kicked the corpse in the head and ripped the fang from his arm. "Little bastard. Just as much of a pain to fight like last time."

"If Sandor was telling the truth, then this wyvern was sent by the people from the village."

"Sandor?"

"The guy who warned us." She answered. "Now, we need to figure out how they figured out we're not human."

"Who knows? Maybe they have a telepath in that stupid village." Thundercracker stood up. "Either way, they're gonna wish they ever saw my face when I'm done with them!"

"You will no such thing alien."

The two bots sun around to the unannounced speaker and saw two people standing on the branch of the nearest tree. A man and a woman, both beast-kin. In their hybrid forms, the man was covered in grey fur and was large, even by beast-kin standards, with a powerful, bulky form, while his female companion had auburn hair and reddish fur with piercing blue eyes. Both beast-kin were also dressed in furs that barely covered their muscular bodies.

"No fancy moves fleshies or we'll blow you to bloody chunks!" Thundercracker yelled. "Don't think we won't do it. I'm still ready to slag a glitch!"

"Show some restraint, you moron." Tomahawk said and walked towards the humans. "We mean you no harm. Who are you?"

The man jumped to the ground first. "I am Thebian, and this is my wife, Jetta. I assume you've talked to my brother in law, Sandor?"

"Yes, he's the one who told us about the wyvern." She replied. She knelt down to the pair. "Can you please tell us what's going on? Sandor said that your village isn't right anymore. What did he mean by that?"

Jetta crossed her arms, glaring at Thundercracker before answering the question. "You two are trapped here, yes? You can't fly away from this land. That's because _she's_ keeping you here."

"She?" Thundercracker asked.

Thebian decided to start from the beginning. "Let me explain. We, as in myself, my wife and brother, and a few others from the other beast-kin tribes are a part of a coalition that travels outside of Karda to learn more about the world. We are espers who have evolved to a point where our powers are hereditary and can be passed down to future generations. Some of us made lives in other lands, while most of us stayed here in Karda.

"But when we returned from our latest trip to Europa about a month ago, something had changed. The tribe was worshipping an idol, Lilith, with great fervor, and didn't tolerate anyone talking bad about her. The daily hunts had stopped as the people were relying more and more on the fruit this "Lilith" provided. When I asked my parents about this, they simply said that Lilith will provide our people for the rest of our lives, and that we are all under her protection."

"So long as we follow her will." Jetta spat. "My parents were the same. You've already met them, the alphas of the tribe. They don't usually put stock into mythical beings, like every other sensible person in this land."

Thundercracker frowned as warning bells rang in his head. "Lilith isn't just some fancy statue, is she?"

Jetta looked down at her hands. "Yes. One night, when everyone was asleep, I noticed my father leaving the valley every night to go someplace. I followed him to a lake not too far from the valley, in an area that the local animals started to recently avoid. It was a garden, one of the most beautiful places I've seen, but…something lives there. I never seen it, but I heard my father talking to it once. It sounded like a woman's voice, only distorted, like a demon used it as a vocal piece. I knew then that the creature was responsible for the tribe's strange behavior, putting everyone under a spell or something. It's the cause of all this, and may be the reason you're stuck here."

Tomahawk processed this information. She didn't believe magic was involved, but Optimus had said that this planet had a lot of strange things going on that couldn't be explained logically. She was startled when Jetta and Thebian bowed low to her.

"We don't know who or what you are, or if you're even from this world, but we are desperate." Jetta pleaded. "Please, we beg of you. Help us."

Tomahawk frowned and looked back at Thundercracker, who had his back to them. She touched his shoulder, but he brushed her hand off. "Thundercracker…"

"Don't even think about it." He grumbled.

"Come on, Thundercracker, they need our help." She said. Thundercracker glared at her.

"I'm a Decepticon, Tomahawk! We don't help little fleshies, we conquer them!" He hissed.

"Oh really?" She sneered. "I thought the Decepticons were a force for revolution?"

Thundercracker gave her a frustrated grunt and started to walk away. Tomahawk asked Jetta and Thebian to wait for her as she jogged after him, roughly grabbing his shoulder and forcing him to look at her.

"You want to be that way? Fine, act like being a Decepticon matters here. I'm sure the giant man-eating monsters are trembling in fear at your name!" Tomahawk said. "But we don't have time for your slag. If I'm right, I think we might find out who shot us down and who's trying to kill us!"

Thundercracker stared at her for a short moment before asking, "You have a plan?"

"Maybe."

"Am I going to like it?"

"Nope."

Thundercracker stared at her again before he sighed and nodded. Tomahawk smiled and looked back at Jetta and Thebian. "We'll help you."

XXXXXX

By morning, Tomahawk and Thundercracker had generated their holoforms back in their rooms where they stayed the previous night. They were the decoys while their real bodies were on the move, getting as close to the village without being seen.

The plan was simple-while the cybertronians lured Brendan and Azelea to someplace secluded, Thebian and Jetta would abduct them and take them far from the village for interrogation. They needed to know what to expect before they went charging into this "secret garden" without knowing what resided there. It was a risky plan, seeing as they still had no idea how the alphas got the stalker in the first place, but it was their best shot.

As the sun rose over the valley, while everyone was still asleep, Brendan and Azelea came to their room, greeting them with bright, happy smiles. Tomahawk could now see how fake those smiles were; she could see they were forced and their eyes were slightly glazed over, as if they were moving in a trance. Something was definitely up with them.

"Good morning you two," Azelea said kindly. "How was your night? I trust you both slept well?"

"Yes, it was very…peaceful." Thundercracker frowned.

"Thank you so much for your hospitality, but we really need to be going now." Tomahawk said. She looked up at the second floor and saw Thebian and Jetta climbing in through the upper window. "We need to see to the repairs of our planes."

Something flashed in Brendan and Azelea's eyes, and their expressions seemed a bit more feral. Brendan cleared his throat. "Won't you stay for breakfast? It may take a while to travel back to your planes this early in the morning. And very dangerous."

"Yes, you never know what might be prowling around out there." Azelea said.

"You mean like that stalker you sent after us?" Thundercracker blurted out. As their surprised looks, he grinned. "Yeah, we know all about that, you lying pieces of slag!"

Jetta and Thebian pounced on the couple, wrestling them to the ground. Brendan gave a very wolf-like growl and struggled against Jetta's hold, but she placed a purple flower under his nose, with Thebian doing the same with Azelea. Almost immediately they began to feel drowsy, and they stopped struggling, even reverting back to their human forms. Once she was sure her parents were out cold, Jetta nodded to the bots. Phase 1 was complete.

XXXXXX

Around 20 minutes later, Brendan and Azelea woke up tied to a tree a few miles outside the valley. Their arms and legs were tied in a fashion where they couldn't get any leverage to use their strength to break free. Thebian, Jetta, Sandor, Tomahawk and Thundercracker stood around the tree.

"W-what happened?" Brendan groaned. "What is this?"

"Hello father, mother." Jetta said coolly. Her parents blinked at her, looking at their children, and the bots, with more animated looks than earlier.

"Jetta, what's going on here?" Azelea asked, very confused. She struggled to break her bonds, but couldn't break free. "Why are we tied up?"

"You know exactly what's going on, mother!" Sandor said firmly. "You and the other villagers turned against us. You sent hunters to kill me and Jetta."

"Why would we do such a thing? You three left Karda for Europa a week ago." Brendan said, puzzled. "As a matter of fact, what are you doing back so early? Did something happen?"

The rebel espers traded confused glances. Brendan and Azelea looked like they just woke up from a bad dream, and seemed to have completely forgotten what happened over the last few hours. Thebian sniffed the air, and found that they weren't lying from their scents or heartbeats. They weren't faking it, they really had no idea what was going on.

"Brendan, Azelea, we've been gone for a year." He told them. "How could you forget that?"

"I…don't know." Brendan winced as a dull ache rang through his head. "My thoughts are all jumbled."

Thebian narrowed his eyes and knelt down in front of his in-laws. "What is the last thing you remember?"

"I think we were doing some late night hunting," Azelea said slowly, trying really hard to search her memory. "Then we stumbled upon this grove, with a beautiful tree. We decided to check it out, since we've been through every inch of this forest, and had never once seen it before."

"Yes…yes, I recall taking note of all the fruit there. It tasted so wonderful, even better than the food we grow in the village. Then there was this loud hissing and we were assaulted by this large creature…I don't remember what it looked like, but it was powerful. After that…" Brendan trailed off.

"Nothing." Thundercracker's unease grew with this information. He had a good idea what the monster they spoke about was, but he needed to be sure. "Tomahawk, we're leaving."

"Already?" Tomahawk said, caught off guard by his sudden eagerness. "What's the rush?"

"Just hurry up and transform." He snapped and looked at Jetta. "Tell us where the grove is. We'll be taking it from here."

"But wasn't the plan was for us to fight the creature in the glade?" Jetta asked.

"Trust me, this isn't a fight you want to get involved in." Thundercracker said and left it at that.

XXXXXX

The grove Jetta told them about was just a few miles away from the village. Tomahawk and Thundercracker flew there in their alt modes but were forced to take their bipedal forms and crawl through the tunnel entrance that led into the valley where the "goddess" resided. After a few annoying minutes of scratching their armor along the tunnel walls, they reached the other side and entered the glade.

The simplest way to describe it would be an oasis. The plants, the trees, the water, even the soil look lush and fertile, with the sun shining down on it in such a way that made the entire place glow. A river cut through the little collection of trees, runoff from the waterfall on the other side of the oasis that reached about two miles high. It was a natural paradise for animals, completely untouched by humans or espers.

"Wow." Tomahawk said. "Jetta wasn't kidding when she said this place was enchanting."

"Don't fall in love with it." Thundercracker said. "This place is probably going to be set on fire anyway."

Tomahawk glared at him and cocked her gun. "Not if I have anything to say about it."

They traveled deeper into the grove, entering the small forest and stepping over mushrooms almost as big as their feet. Thundercracker grumbled and complained about getting dirt and other "filthy" organic mush in his actuators, but Tomahawk paid the grumpy Seeker no mind. She was just awestruck at how alive this place felt. Like everything from the grass to the largest animals were charged with energy and thriving off it.

When they reached the glade at the heart of the forest, they saw a large tree. It reached almost 30 feet into the air, its treetops blocking what would've been a large hole in the forest canopy. It wouldn't have been that remarkable if the tree didn't look like it was made of different minerals. Its branches were made of a clear, prismatic crystal, its leaves were like emeralds, the trunk made of black onyx, and the fruit hanging on the branches looked like apples made of rubies. Thundercracker and Tomahawk blinked at the rather implausible sight.

"Is that tree really made of jewels?" Thundercracker asked.

"It would appear so." Tomahawk said. "But I'm more concerned about the fruit. The villagers didn't start acting strange until they are it but…how the hell did they eat jeweled fruit?"

"Maybe the pain of their teeth breaking was what drove them mad." The Seeker snorted. Tomahawk hit his shoulder. "Say what you want, that joke was totally worth it."

Tomahawk sighed. "You're impossible."

They walked closer to the tree, and suddenly it felt as if the entire grove had stopped its activity. The lone Autobot and Decepticon kept their guard up as they studied the strange tree, which felt like it was emitting a kind of invisible magnetic aura, like a charged up power generator.

"There's no way this tree is natural. But who made it?" Tomahawk eyed one of the fruit, seeing it glint in the dim sunlight. It did look rather appetizing from this angle. Deciding to act on her curiosity, she reached for the fruit. "I wonder what it would taste like to a Cybertronian…"

The second her fingertips touched the fruit, a loud hiss cut the serenity of the place, putting everything to a screeching halt. Tomahawk jumped back as a long, ivory white tail made of smooth marble nearly impaled her. She and Thundercracker readied their weapons as something spoke from within the confines of the jeweled tree.

"Who dares touch the forbidden fruit?" A silky smooth voice hissed, and the glass branches jingled as the tail slithered back into its confines. Something was moving up there.

"Depends on who's asking." Tomahawk replied.

"I know about you, invaders. My Queen has spoken of your kind, how you machines burn everything you touch. This grove, its wildlife, those humans, all of Nyx belongs to me!" The jingling of the branches became more agitated. "I shall kill you in the name of Jubileus!"

Thundercracker groaned. "Oh no."

"What?" Tomahawk asked, keeping her gaze on the tree.

"I know what we're dealing with." He said and threw a rock at the branches. If you're going to kill us for your so-called queen, then how about you show your face first before talking slag!"

"So eager to die." The voice laughed. "Very well, I shall kill you in Her name myself!"

A giant creature fell from the branches and landed on the ground, whipping her long tail at the Cybertronians. Tomahawk and Thundercracker jumped apart as the long appendage slammed into the ground hard enough to leave a trench in the dirt. It retracted its tail and turned to face the two bots.

It, she, had the form of a pale skinned female above the waist-enticing to the human eye with an ample form, long arms and blood red nails. But below her waistline was a heavily muscled snake tail with white scales made of ivory. Her face was perfectly sculpted, one of beauty with thin, ruby red eyes that looked like the actual jewel and red lips. Her long black hair looked like it was spun from onyx and contrasted her marble skin.

"A dolem?" Tomahawk gasped. Prime had informed her of those aliens who came dangerously close to killing Team Prime last year. She didn't think she'd see one so soon, or that they looked so…outlandish.

"It would be one of your freaks, wouldn't it?" Thundercracker sniffed. "I thought we were done with you bozos after torching your precious Cardinals."

"The death of the Cardinals is hardly a low to our crusade." Lilith said, swaying her upper body back and forth like a cobra. "Our mission remains the same, to turn this chaotic universe into a paradise, just like the one you see here. Unlike you Cybertronians, who burn everything you touch. I try to create a paradise on Nyx, unite the espers of this land under my rule, but here you come intruding upon my territory."

"Intruding? You zapped us and dragged us down here! You're the one at fault here!" Tomahawk yelled.

"I did no such thing, but it would seem this planet's wishes do not conform to our goal, even though what we're doing will save the world for ages to come!" Lilith coiled her body around herself. "No matter, I will rectify this affront myself!"

Coiling her body like a spring, Lilith shot forward, shooting at Tomahawk. Tomahawk jumped to the side and swung her cutter down on Lilith's unprotected body, but her blades didn't cause that much damage before she was hit in the chest by the serpentine tail. Thundercracker fired his cannons at her, but she used her thick tail as a shield to block his laser bolts.

"You only used those fruits to control those humans because they were smart enough not to throw in their lot with you!" Thundercracker yelled.

"I grew this tree from the quintessence of the planet itself. The fruit you decry as corruption are Mother Gaia's gifts to her children. Gifts of knowledge of the gods and the everlasting life we can grant them. Those espers are the first to receive my gifts and in time they will see our way of thinking." Lilith said. "And soon they'll evolve to achieve perfect harmony, just like us!"

"Translation: the tree has mind controlling fruit that enslave fleshies to your will." Thundercracker said, using his boosters to fly over Lilith as she snapped her head at him. "Have some courtesy to not pin your evil scheme on someone else."

He ducked under a swipe from her tail and transformed to jet mode. "But thanks for revealing your weak point."

He hovered in the air and spun to face the tree, firing two missiles from his ports. Lilith gave a deafening screech as the projectiles hit the trunk of the tree. The entire artificial construct shook from the explosive impact, branches were shattered like glass, red fruit thrown about, and the trunk itself now sported two holes in its ebony surface. However, it still stood strong. That didn't quell Lilith's anger though.

"You filthy godless savage!" She roared and lunged at Thundercracker. "Those fruits would've given the people of this land a new life. Knowledge, immortality, power! I was offering them salvation from the dangers of this land!

Tomahawk rammed into Lilith from the side and brought her to the ground. Lilith punched her in the face and pinned her to the ground. Thundercracker switched forms and jumped on her back, stabbing his bayonet into her ribs, but she wrapped her tail around his waist and cracked him like a whip against the ground multiple times before slamming him into a tree. Tomahawk jumped back and transformed to her alt mode, barely able to get any lift with the lack of rotor space.

"The people here were doing fine before you came here!" She yelled and fired multiple rockets into Lilith's back.

The dolem spun around, her jaw unhinging like a snake's to reveal her long, needle sharp fangs. She risked taking another rocket to the shoulder as she lunged at Tomahawk, flanking her and biting into her tail rotor. Using her tail as leverage, Lilith swung Tomahawk around and threw her into a tree. Bark and leaves flew everywhere as the transformed Autobot spiraled out of control, her rotors cutting apart trees and digging gouges into the soft dirt like blades. She was forced to switch back to robot mode, but as soon as she did, Lilith appeared and wrapped her body around Tomahawk. Like an anaconda, Lilith was sure to restrain the femme's arms as she began constricting her prey.

"You machines have caused my kind enough pain already." Lilith hissed in Tomahawk's pained face as she slowly crushed her. Metal groaned as the stress put on Tomahawk's joints and servo-actuators became too much. "Every death of your kind will prove to be a suitable offering to my Queen. Wiping your kind out will be a godsend."

Tomahawk could only grunt as she tried to struggle out of Lilith's hold. Anacondas were known for using their body mass and thick muscles to constrict and kill their prey through suffocation alone. Lilith's body was made of stone and various minerals, which only made trying to get free near impossible. And the increasing pressure on her body threatened to break her arms and damage her torso to the point of possible crushing her laser core. This wasn't good at all.

"What made you think that you could hurt me? My form is made of stone, hard and unbreakable. But your cold, lifeless shell is bendable, easy to shatter. You can be bent and shaped like clay. Funny how useless you are when you lose your fancy weapons." Lilith taunted as she glared into Tomahawk's face. She grabbed the Autobot's head and forced her to look right into her eyes. "Now then, any last words before I turn you into a steel lightning rod?"

"Y-yeah," Tomahawk grunted. She gave Lilith a taunting grin. "Heads up."

Lilith looked at her in confusion, but Tomahawk's words became clear when a blade was stabbed through the back of her head and emerged through her mouth. Lilith gargled and gagged, looking back to see Thundercracker shoving his bayonet into her head. He smirked and raised his other bayonet, pulling his right one out and slashing her across her neck. Sharp metal dug into thick stone, but Thundercracker put a lot of strength into his swing, managing to sever Lilith's head from her shoulders. And just for good measure, he blew her head apart with a few laser blasts. You can never be too careful with these folks.

Tomahawk was released from the dead dolem's tail and fell to the ground. As Lilith's corpse fell to the side, Tomahawk was pleasantly surprised to have Thundercracker help her up, though he tried to play it off.

"I thought you'd never stick your neck out for an Autobot?" She grinned.

"I'm not too good to acknowledge the help of a fellow flyer. Nothing more, nothing less." He crossed his arms. "Don't get used to it."

They heard something cracking and saw the jeweled tree Lilith grew begin to grow fractures along its faceted surface. The fruit began to pop into tiny dust sparkles, the branches fell to the ground and shatter into millions of little pieces, and the trunk itself started losing chunks. Tomahawk and Thundercracker looked at each other before pointing their weapons at the tree and firing at it. The tree didn't last a second against their assault and was blown apart, turning into a fine, sparkling powder that was scattered to the winds. It was a perfect way to end the day after almost getting killed for the thousandth time.

XXXXXX

Tomahawk wasn't one to get flustered easily, but having the entire wolf tribe bowing to her and Thundercracker was a bit embarrassing. It was rare to have organics actually showing gratitude to you after having most of the galaxy calling for your head just for being mechanical. Thundercracker just soaked up their praise like a sponge, sporting a stupid grin on his face.

"We can't thank you enough for setting out people free from that monster." Brendan said, smiling up at them. "If you hadn't come when you did…"

"I'm just doing my job, sir." Tomahawk said. She gave Jetta, who was sitting on her shoulder, a wink. "If Jetta and her family hadn't helped us out when we did, we'd be scrap in the forest right now."

"And I'm glad I took the risk." Jetta smiled.

"Well, I for one, am going to be happy to finally be free of this hell hole. Time to return to my not so wonderful home. Skywarp is going to be bitching like no tomorrow now." Thundercracker sighed. He then saw Tomahawk giving him a look. "What?"

"You're not really going back to Megatron? Not after saving lives today."

"I'm not a traitor to my kind, Tomahawk, and I'm certainly not going to take a gamble with Megatron and the DJD." He replied, frowning. "Though it did feel good to fight with you again."

Tomahawk smiled at that, then asked another concerning question. "You're not going to tell Megatron about this, are you?"

He snorted rudely. "Please, just operating in Nyx for a day was enough for him to call it quits. And I'm certainly not gonna tell him that I saved a bunch of fleshies. Later, Hawk."

Thundercracker gave them a lazy wave and transformed to his jet mode, shooting into the sky and quickly becoming a speck in the distance, away from the valley and the cheering humans. Tomahawk smiled at her former comrade. He wasn't fooling anyone with that nonchalant attitude.

"Your friend is a strange one." Jetta commented.

"He's not my friend," Tomahawk said, still smiling. "He's just some stupid flyboy who thinks he's cool. Too bad he's a bad actor."

Despite her words, she was glad that being a Decepticon hadn't changed her friend too much over the long, arduous millennia. Looks like war didn't change everyone like she thought.

* * *

 **Would you guys believe that I'm having a brainstorm about my own Power Rangers story? I'm not writing one, it's just that after reading the Might Morphin**

 **Power Rangers comic (it's really good. Check it out), I've been thinking of a Power Rangers story inspired by Voltron: LD, and animated in the same fashion.**

 **Like an animated Power Rangers show. Just a thought. Anyway, be sure to head to my Archive of My Own account, Saya444 for links to my fanfiction web-**

 **sites and please leave a review. Thanks for reading everybody!**


	24. Fortress

Chapter 24-Fortress

The Air Defense Team would often fly over the Osean countryside in what they considered to be aerial exercises. It was something they thought up in order to keep their flying skills sharp, heading out to tour the land whenever the Autobots were out on a mission. As much fun they had with the children and other Minicons, it was starting to become a bit suffocating. Prowl's little Minicon martial law was also grating on their nerves, and one could only get off on pissing the tactician off for so long before they got tired of it.

As they passed over an abandoned town, Sonar detected something with his long range radar.

"Hey, boss?" He called out to Runway. "I'm getting something strange here."

"Did you find another group of bats again, Sonar?" Jetstorm asked. "Because I swear to all the aces of old, if you lead us into another swarm of those flying rodents…"

"No, no, this is different." Sonar replied. "I'm detecting biosignals. Minicon biosignals."

That caught Runway's attention. "You mean stasis panels?"

"No, I mean actual, living biosignals. Alive and active, northwest of our position."

"Boys, I think we just hit paydirt!" Runway hollered. "Just our luck to find our missing comrades where so many others have failed. Formation B gentlemen, we're going to greet our newly awakened friends in style!"

"Huzzah!"

XXXXXX

Night Scream was a mech who was a warrior in mind, but not exactly body. Born in a rough neighborhood on Cybertron, in what was called the Minicon "ghettos", he knew that one had to be the loudest or strongest to get by in life. He had been in some tough situations himself back in his day, be it organized crime or the occasional Bulk trying to start something. Being stuck on an alien world with no ship, barely any energon, and four other Minicons as his only companion was something that even he almost considered to be a hopeless situation. And he wasn't a mech who used the H word often.

Night Scream and the designated Land Military Team were hiding out in an abandoned meat factory on the outskirts of some human city whose name he didn't care to learn. Having awakened from his stasis panel prematurely for some reason, he was genuinely lost and a bit afraid until he ran into the Land Military team and their designated "leader", a femme he deigned to call the "Pink Princess". It was nice to have some of his own kind around, but the fact remains that they were still lost and without any means of obtaining resources. Night Scream didn't like admitting his fear, but even he had to admit that things were looking pretty scary right now.

"This is unbelievable!" Shot (Armada Wreckage) grumbled. He was a bulky green Minicon with large gray arms with arm-mounted pulse cannons. "We should be out there looking for our friends, not screwing around playing Ches!"

"It's Chess, Shot. There's two Ss." Crack (Armada Knock-Out), a brown Minicon with a plasma cannon on his shoulder, said. He moved his pawn forward ad leaned back. "Your move, Bomb."

"Yeah, yeah, hold your gyros. I'm new at this." Bomb (Armada Bonecrusher) grunted. He was a black and red mech with a targeting lens in his left eye and with a variable missile launcher as a right arm. "It's not easy playing with one arm."

Crack waved him off. "Excuses, excuses."

"Would you morons focus? I'm sick of sitting here and doing nothing!" Shot yelled. "We should-"

"We should do what, Shot?" Night Scream said as he entered the room. "Walk a thousand miles to the nearest energon mine, which could be in any direction?"

The sunlight glinted off Night Scream's pitch black armor as he walked under a hole in the roof. He sported the black armor of his alt mode, which he reformatted into a Terran sports car. Though unspoken, Night Scream was the unofficial leader in the Pink Princess's absence, mostly because he was actually more level-headed than the Land Military team.

"It's better than sitting here, twiddling our thumbs while your _friend_ ," Shot said the word with a surprising amount of scorn. "Suddenly remembers to visit us again."

"Shot, unless you have a solid plan that doesn't involve us blindly wandering the land until a human spots us in broad daylight, kindly shut up please." Night Scream said. He wasn't afraid of Shot's aggressive grandstanding. In fact, he was getting tired of it. "Look, I know you're frustrated with our circumstances, but we just need to hang on a little bit longer until she comes back with some energon. I'll ask her what's up with our housing situation."

"You better. I'm sick of waking up to those little black vermin crawling all over me." Shot growled.

Before anything else could be said, a part of the roof was blasted in as three small aircraft crashed through the thin metal panels. The Land Military team immediately shot up and pointed their weapons at them, but Night Scream waved them down. He knew who they were.

Runway, Jetstorm and Sonar transformed in unison and landed on the ground in a fancy pose, the sunlight glinting off their silver armor like they were some heroes from one of Gina's anime. Runway stepped forward and saluted them. "Greetings friends and comrades! We've come to liberate you from this unholy dump you call a home!"

Shot, Crack and Bomb glanced at each other before charging up their weapons at the Air Defense team just out of spite. Runway stammered and jumped back, but Night Scream got between them.

"Would you three morons quit it?" He sighed. Night Scream gave the newcomers a wave. "It's good to see you three alive and well, Runway. We thought we'd be spending the rest of our days out here in the wild."

"You can thank Sonar here. He detected your life signals just as we were passing over the town." Jetstorm said. "We totally would've missed you otherwise."

"Please tell me you're gonna take us back to a place with some fragging energon." Bomb pleaded. They were surviving off of sheer fortitude and rations mined from small nearby deposits and Bomb wanted nothing more than to actually sit back and open a can of Engex to drink his worries away.

"That and more. Now that we've finally found you, we can take you all back to the Ark!" Runway said enthusiastically.

"Thank Primus!" Shot hollered and marched up to them. "Hurry up and call the Autobots before something bad happens!"

"Whoa, whoa, we can't leave yet." Night Scream stopped them. Crack gave him a look.

"Uh, yeah, we can. Just call for a ground bridge and we're in paradise."

Night Scream sighed. "No, I mean we can't leave without getting Princess!"

"Princess?" The Air Defense Team echoed, confused.

"Our fearless leader," Shot growled. "Who just left us out here to starve with no way of calling for help!"

"Don't start, Shot, she's not like that." Suddenly his communicator beeped. "See? That's her now." He said smugly, and switched it on. "Hey, Mu-"

" _Night Scream, you need to go, now_!" The femme on the other line sounded panicked, which was rare enough to gain the other's attention.

"Whoa, whoa, slow down. What's wrong?" He asked.

" _You've got company coming! The kind you don't want knocking at your door_." She said. " _Now you guys need to leave ASAP before they reach the factory!"_

"Wha-" The call was cut short and Night Scream gave his friends a troubled glance. "Yeah, I think we better listen to the lady."

"Uh, Night Scream," Runway said, now sounding a bit wary. He recognized that voice. "Was that who I think it was?"

Before Night Scream would answer, the wall next to them was blown apart, and the entire roof of the factory was destroyed in an explosive burst. Everyone took cover to avoid the falling debris, but they saw a large olive green missile tank rolling through the hole it made. The Decepticon brand on the side of the tank was enough to bring dread to the Minicons as it transformed into a towering mech who stomped over to them.

Demolishor pointed his pulse cannons at the Air Defense Team and grinned. "Where do you think you're going?"

XXXXXX

Gina gave an annoyed grunt as she stared at her computer screen. She spent almost an hour using the personal link-up with Teletran-1 on her laptop to detect any stasis panel signals, but found nothing. It was starting to grate on her nerves at the lack of any action in that field, seeing as there were still a fair amount of Minicon refugees still missing. Optimus and Sparkplug were getting worried as well, but things were a little hectic and their attention was often required elsewhere. The lack of updates from the Ark's sensory array was frustrating.

"This is getting on my nerves." Gina huffed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. She still wore her glasses, even though she didn't need them anymore thanks to her enhanced eyesight. It was one of the more subtle changes she was undergoing thanks to her Inhuman activation.

Aside from her more obvious and flashy powers, there were more subtle changes going on within her body. Gina didn't really feel different aside from her enhanced strength and better metabolism, but she did notice that she was now slightly taller than the twins, and her muscle mass has increased a bit as well, which led to a few unfortunate accidents with her smaller, tight fitting shirts (it drove her mother up the wall to get new clothes for her husband and daughter). She rarely felt tired, and she felt like she was fully energy almost all day.

"Gina, are you doing all right?" Sureshock asked as she and Sara entered the workshop. They just came back from helping the Harkins' matriarch with the groceries (Julia had taken a strong liking to the Minicon and android, treating them like they were family).

"I'm fine, Sureshock, it's just…ugh!" Gina slammed her head on the table and groaned.

"Would you like a massage to ease your pain, Gina?" Sara suggested, placing her hands on Gina's firm shoulders.

"That's not necessary, Sara-ooh," Gina hummed as Sara's dainty hands worked out the stress in her shoulder blades and leaned back with a sighed. "Oh yeah, that feels good."

Sureshock rolled her eyes. "Gina, are you still looking for those Minicons?"

Hmm? Oh, yeah, I've been monitoring Teletran for a while now," She moaned as Sara massaged a soft spot on her back. "But no panels have activated, and I've hit a dead end in finding any clues in ancient historical texts."

"Those panels should have activated by now." Sureshock said and crossed her arms. "You know, now that I think about it, we haven't had an activation since-"

"The planetary alignment that brought about the dolems." Sara said, still massaging Gina's shoulders.

"Yeah, that. I ran that idea by Wheeljack and he theorized that the magnetic flux caused by the alignment might have released a serious energy wave that threw the panels out of whack. It might be the magnetic pull of the planets, it might be the energy the Cardinals released when they awakened, who knows anymore? The point is that we're out of luck unless someone gives up a heads up or something."

An email alert popped up on her laptop. Sureshock opened it for Gina, who was stuck in Nirvana at this point, and read the message. A second later, she let out a startled gasp.

"By the Allspark, Gina, we need to contact the Autobots now!"

XXXXXX

Someone had sent four pictures to Gina, and they all depicted something rather troubling. One showed Demolishor holding a cage with the Air Defense Team trapped inside. The other two was of a large, metal bunker that looked like it was built from raw materials from a scrapyard. The last was of the bunker's location, a deep canyon located in some unknown part of the world, which didn't help identify where this was taking place at all.

"Is this image genuine, Teletran-1?" Optimus asked the computer.

" **Affirmative. No sign of digital alterations or doctoring.** " Teletran-1 confirmed.

Optimus, Prowl and Sparkplug were studying the four images to see what they meant and who sent them. Of course, they had no idea since they couldn't trace them back to who sent them to Gina in the first place, but right now their attention was focused on figuring out how to deal with this situation.

"Sparkplug, what were they doing out of the ship? There was a set curfew for all Minicons." Prowl asked. Sparkplug frowned and crossed his arms.

"I don't recall agreeing to that curfew, Prowl, and I don't know how they got out myself. You know how antsy they get when cooped up indoors too long." He said.

"Let's focus on the situation at hand, you two. Megatron is now in possession of the Omni-saber, and that spells trouble for us and them." Optimus said. He took a closer look at the picture "That structure looks like the Decepticon's Nebrask bunker."

"It's probably a local energon mining facility. That place looks large enough to hold a driller or two to dig into the rock for any deposits." Prowl deduced and looked at Optimus. "Prime, they could be mining Ore-13 for all we know."

"With all due respect Optimus, now's not the time to be playing it safe." Sparkplug glared at the Autobot leader. "Together, the Air Defense team could make Megatron almost strong enough to rival his sting from Ore-13. A full-scale assault isn't the way to go…but a covert operation-just me and a handful of other Minicons-might have a shot."

Optimus glanced at Prowl, who didn't look very happy with the plan. It was a logical way to go about this, but there were too many unknown factors to consider to make it a stable strategy.

"No, it's too risky, the Decepticons could capture you and turn you all against us." Optimus gave Sparkplug an apologetic look. "I'm sorry, but your plan is denied."

XXXXXX

Megatron watched with an eager expression as Knockout worked his magic on the Air Defense Team, using his "reeducation" techniques on the Minicons to recondition them into their servants.

This process was nothing new. Back on Cybertron, Megatron led raiding parties on the two moons that housed the Minicons, and he conditioned Shockwave to fashion a slave program that would "teach" these Minicons who didn't join them willingly, retooling them via inhibitors built into their neural nets to suppress their higher functions and made them susceptible to Decepticon commands. What Knockout was installing now was sadly nowhere near the same quality as Shockwave's technology, and he had to build his from scratch on top of that. While the medic had assured him that the implants would work, he was still unsure if they would be as good as the real thing. For his sake, Megatron scowled, it had better work, or he would be testing out an upgraded version on himself!

This little installation they had constructed was just a minor mining facility built on top of an ore-13 vein. It was painted the same color as the rocks around them for camouflage, and invisible sensors masked them from Autobot sensor arrays and scanning equipment. It wasn't state of the art by any means, but it did the trick long enough for them to get the energon uninterrupted.

"Lord Megatron," Demolishor walked into the room and saluted. "You wanted to see me sir?"

"Yes, Demolishor," Megatron smiled at the loyal soldier. "I wanted to commend you for capturing that Minicon. It's not every day that one of my mechs actually does something right for a change."

"Thank you, sir. I was just doing my part for the Decepticon cause." Demolishor said humbly. Though his hardened face was stoic, he was inwardly doing a victory dance at being acknowledged by his leader.

"Your valor is appreciated, but don't let it blind you to our enemies. Always be on guard. "Megatron warned him. "There was another Decepticon like you, Lugnut. He was a true Decepticon warrior, but his patriotism blinded him and he was killed by the lowest of beings."

"I heard from Thundercracker that he was killed by a human," Demolishor was hesitant to bring up a rather sore topic for Megatron. "Is that true, sir?"

"That is very true. Lugnut was caught off guard by one of Prime's pet humans, a lucky shot if anything. I'd advise against attempting to get revenge," He said. "These humans are tricky and can be dangerous if you don't end them quickly."

"I'll keep that in mind, sir."

"See that you do. As for your reward, you'll have the next Minicon that activates."

Demolishor smiled and slammed his large fist to his chest. "Thank you very much, Lord Megatron. You honor me with you praise."

"Continue the good work and you may get a front row seat," Megatron glanced back to the mining operation. "To the death of Optimus Prime and his Autobots!"

XXXXXX

A few hours after Optimus gave his verdict, Sparkplug, Jolt, Undertone and Emulator stood in a small crevice with Darren, Annie and Gina, who were clad in their pilot suit with their talos parked under a rock formation. Despite Optimus's warnings, Sparkplug wasn't willing to wait here while Megatron abused the Air Defense Team's power. So he did what he planned to do-round up a few like-minded Minicons and as a bonus, requested the children to help them. As sad as it was, he couldn't trust the Autobots to do what had to be done at this point in time.

"So we clear?" Sparkplug asked, after going over the plan with them. "Whatever happens, Darren, do not alert the Autobots."

"Okay, okay, I get it. You want this to be an inside job." Darren said, but frowned. "But Sparkplug, this is risky. If you screw up, we'll all be in trouble, and not just with Optimus."

"I know, but there's no going back here. I'm fed up with Optimus telling us what we can and can't do. They're my people, so it's my responsibility." He said. "But if anyone wants out, I understand."

Darren smiled and put his hand in, along with the girls, Jolt, Undertone and even Sara. Sparkplug smiled and placed his hand in the pile as a show of unity-until Peppercat shocked them with her fingers upon joining in.

"Take this," Jolt handed Gina a small radio. "If we're not out in thirty minutes, activate this."

"Got it." Gina said and nodded to Sara. "Sara, lead them in."

"Affirmative." Sara stepped forward and took point, climbing down the slope into the canyon. Sparkplug took a deep breath and made sure his blaster was fully charged.

"Okay, wish us luck. Because we're going to need every shred!" Sparkplug transformed along with the other Minicons. "Roll out, Minicons!"

XXXXXX

When they got close to the bunker, Sara did a wire frame scan of the area and found a small opening where they could sneak inside. It was a cooling vent, meant to dispense excess fumes from the refining process as waste materials.

"We're going in there?" Jolt groaned. He jumped back as flames spouted from the vent.

"It's the only secure entrance we can take undiscovered." Sara said. She waited for the flames to die down before jumping in. "Let's go."

She led the team through the vents and exited into the waste disposal section. Checking to see if the coast was clear, they ran out of the chamber and headed down the hall to where the mining equipment was stored. The Minicons transformed and drove right past Knockout as he strolled around the corner, none the wiser to the little intruders sneaking past his feet.

"Where to, nya?" Emulator asked.

"We need to figure out where they're keeping Runway and his team." Sparkplug said. "Let's split up and-"

"Hold up, someone's coming!" Jolt hissed.

"Now?" Sparkplug growled.

Skyquake stomped through the door with a scowl on his gold plated face. He hated taking orders from hardasses like Demolishor, whose only real use was the heavy fire power his tank mode provided. Otherwise, that guy was a completely ineffectual fighter who couldn't last three seconds against the Autobots' yellow scout. He went to check on the inventory in the storage area when he caught sight of the four Minicons on the floor.

"This must be my lucky day." Skyquake charged at the Minicons, reaching down to snatch them up, but Undertone leapt at him, stabbing his swords into his hand while Sara jumped up to his face and slashed at him with her proton blades. Skyquake hissed in pain and stumbled back.

"Run! We will hold him off!" Sara said.

"Hold me off?" Skyquake bellowed. He swung his fist at Sara, who flipped over his arm, but was unable to dodge his backhand strike that hit her into the wall. She crashed into a crate before falling to the ground. "Like you puny weaklings can hurt me!"

Undertone ran up Skyquake's back and flipped over his head, stabbing his sword into the Seeker's left eye. Skyquake reeled back in pain as the sharp blade dug into his optic cavity and tripped over a pipe, falling onto his back.

"Move it!" Sparkplug, Jolt and Emulator transformed and sped out of the room. Undertone helped Sara to her feet and they ran after their friends as Skyquake glared at them.

"No one hurts me, you little freaks!" Skyquake snarled and took out his artillery cannon. Shooting nearly a hundred rounds at the fleeing Minicons, he didn't realize that free firing indoors was hazardous to his health. His bullets tore apart a support beam holding the generator and the imbalance cause the entire thing to fall over.

Undertone saw the debris coming down on them and jumped on Sara to protect her while they and Skyquake were buried alive.

XXXXXX

"Annie, what's the time?"

Annie checked her watch. "Exactly five forty-seven."

"No, Annie, not the time! The Time!" Darren exclaimed. "How long have they been in there?"

"Ohh, right, yeah. Forty-two minutes."

"Give us thirty minutes', Sparkplug said, 'Then activate this'. But what the hell is it?" Darren asked as he pressed the button on the device. It wasn't the usual communicator that the Autobots would give them on missions, it looked more like a scanner, only less flashy.

"He also said not to involve the Autobots." Annie sighed. "This was a mistake, letting them go alone-and into a bloody Decepticon base of all things!"

Then the ground began to tremble and the children, hardened to any kind of battlefield surprises, were immediately on alert. Gina was the first to make to her talos, leaping (as in actually leaping) into her Athena's cockpit and magnified her optical cameras on the base.

"All right, how bad is it, Gina?" Darren asked.

"Bad." Gina frowned.

"Bad on what scale?" He asked.

"On a scale of bad to worse," Gina said, watching as Megatron stomped out of the refinery waving the omni-saber, now blackened and dark purple and emitting bolts of energy, in the air with a triumphant look on his face. "I'd say jinkies!"

XXXXXX

Emulator crawled out of the hole she fell into to avoid the falling energon cubes. She gave a startled meow when Skyquake punched his way out of the pile of scrap and quickly ran back into the hole. He looked around and cursed when he didn't hear the driller working anymore. It was shutdown thanks for the generator falling on his head.

"Is it too much to ask to emerge victorious for once?" Skyquake grumbled. "Five Minicons just land right in my lap, an opportunity right there, and I go drop a damn generator on them!"

There was a beep from his comm and he switched it on. "Yes…okay. I'm on my way." He pulled himself out of the scrap pile and marched through the door, still cursing angrily at his misfortune.

Emulator waited until she could no longer hear his footsteps and slowly crawled out of the crate. She switched from her beast mode and gazed up at the wreckage. She climbed up on the crates, her plug-fingers causing small shocks on contact with the metal until she made it to the top of the mess. Emulator looked around and her ears sagged in nervousness.

"Sparkplug? Jolt, Undertone…Sara?" She called out. "Are you alright, nya?"

Emulator didn't hear a peep, and she got worried. She looked around, wondering where they were in this mess and how she was going even find them, let along get them out. One of the metal pipes sitting against the wall fell over with a loud clang and Emulator jumped nearly a foot in the air in shock. Then she fell off the crate towards the floor.

"Nyaaaaa!"

Emulator curled up into a ball and waited for her body to hit the ground, but instead of smashing against the cold, hard floor, she felt herself get caught by something soft. She didn't open her eyes until she heard her savior speak.

"Are you okay?"

Emulator opened her large green eyes and found herself staring into the dark indigo optic lens of a black Minicon, who was holding her in his arms.

"H-Hello." She gave him a little wave, hoping he hadn't seen her screaming her tail off. "Who are you, nya?"

"Night Scream." He said. "I'm guessing you're here for the same reason as I am?"

"Yes, nya!"

"Then we better get your friends out before Skyquake comes back for round 2." Night Scream placed Emulator back on her feet and looked at the huge pile of debris. "This is going to take a while."

XXXXXX

"This was a stupid idea!" Annie grumbled. "We never should've let them go!"

Darren didn't say anything as he kept his view on Megatron. He, along with Demolishor and Skyquake left the bunker in their alt modes to travel to some location unknown to them. Darren wasn't concerned with that, only that he couldn't see Sparkplug's group anywhere.

"I'm not seeing the others down there at all." He told the girls. Gina sighed and cracker her knuckles.

"Looks like we're going in." She leaned back in her seat. "You two suit-up and-"

"Hold up, we have company." Annie pointed at the small hill near them, where three small military vehicles were driving down the slope towards them.

The three Minicons transformed in synch and marched towards the kids. They looked strong and were packing some serious heat; the lead Minicon was a brown mech with a large shoulder cannon, the green Minicon next to him had arm cannons mounted on his arms, and the black and red Minicon behind them had a long railgun in place of a left arm.

"Humans!" The brown mech yelled in a gruff tone. Gina idly thought he sounded like a drill sergeant. "You will tell us where you got that panic pager on the double!"

"We are the Land Military Minicon team, head of the security team for the Exodus." The green one said. "I am shot, and that's Bomb, and our leader Crack. Now answer the question."

"We didn't steal it, if that's what you're thinking." Darren stepped forward. "It was given to us by Sparkplug. He and the rest of our friends went into that bunker to save some other Minicons that were captures, but they've run into some trouble."

"A Decepticon bunker? So that's where the Air Team was taken to." Bomb, the brown one, started. He looked at the bunker. After a minute, he shrugged. "If that's the case, then there's not really much we can do, is there?"

"What? But you're Minicons!" Annie said, shocked at how nonchalant these Minicons were to the situation. "Some of your friends are trapped in there! If we can call the Autobots-"

"We only came here because a friend of ours ran off. But if he and the others are stuck down there, alone, it's out of our hands." Shot shrugged his wide shoulders. "The fact is, we rejected any kind of alliance with the Autobots and Decepticons. We are our own cause. This war of theirs is not our fight."

"Not your fight?" Darren growled. Annie tried to hold him back, but he brushed her hand off his shoulder and marched up to Shot. "You don't get to say that! It's your war, a war that's been brought to my world. The Cons have hurt people to get to you, so it is your responsibility! You don't get to bury your head in the sand and say it's not your problem! It's our entire problem!"

The LM team were shocked silent by Darren's outburst. Crack scowled and walked up to the boy. "Look, kid-"

"You three aren't going in alone."

Darren paused as he heard that familiar female voice that he never thought he'd hear again. He looked over Shot's shoulder and saw a pink form do a front flip and land next to them. She was a Minicon, a two wheeler with pink armor hold a silver staff with red lines.

"Mugen?"

"Hello children." Mugen smiled. "It's been a while."

XXXXXX

Night Scream and Emulator spent the next few minutes helping Sara and Undertone climb out of the debris. Sparkplug was pinned under a beam and Sara had to use her laser blades to cut through the metal to get him out. Once that was done, Night Scream helped Sparkplug to his feet.

"This is all my fault." Sparkplug lamented. "We barely accomplished anything aside from almost getting captured ourselves. What was I thinking?"

"You were emotional, and thus you acted out of pure reactionary impulses instead of rational thinking. Even still, we decided to go with you on our own free will, because we knew that your Spark was in the right place." Undertone, who rarely spoke, said softly. "We had a chance and we took it. What matters is that we are all alive and well."

Emulator clawed through the rest of the debris tracking Jolt's scent. When she saw the glint of his red armor, she stepped back to allow Sara and Undertone to cut away the metal scraps and get Jolt out.

"Is Jolt alright?" Sparkplug asked.

"He is unconscious from a hit to his head." Sara said. "He's still alive, but I believe it would be best to get him to someplace safe."

Without another word, Sara lifted Jolt onto her back and headed for the vent they came in through. Sparkplug decided this was a good time to get some answers from Night Scream. "Night Scream, what's going on? How are you even here? What happened to your panel?"

"You're asking the wrong mech, Sparkplug. All I can tell you is that something happened to my panel that set me free without an activation signal." Night Scream shrugged. "I was wandering around for weeks after I reawakened before running into the Land Military team-"

"Wonderful, they're awake too?" Sparkplug sighed. He didn't hate Shot's group, but they're hardline, go guns or go home attitude was really annoying.

"And Mugen."

Sparkplug, Undertone and Emulator paused at that. "Mugen?" Sparkplug repeated surprised.

"Yeah, she was the one who found me after running into the Land Military Team. She told me she was searching for stasis panels. Stumbled upon me by chance while I was exploring the plains by the road, and we've been hunting down the others since." He said. Seeing their odd expressions, Night Scream asked, "Why are you all looking at me like that?"

XXXXXX

Megatron never thought that he'd get a chance to wield the Minicons' so-called legendary weapon. A four way powerlink between him and the Air Defense team by way of the gestalt weapon, the omni-saber and Leader-1, was something that one could only dream of. The immense power transfer that occurred from such a massive powerlink made him feel absolutely invigorated. Though designed for use by a Minicon gestalt Centurion's size, it fit snug in his hand and the blade would vibrate like a tuning fork. One swipe could generate a sonic pulse that could be felt for nearly 200 miles.

"Come out and play, Prime!" Megatron laughed. "Or I'll cleave this entire state and the one next door in two!"

Standing a good distance from their leader to avoid getting caught in his tangent, Demolishor and Skyquake watched Megatron swing the sword around like he was trying to swat a fly. Skyquake made a grunt of annoyance at being forced to watch as his master partook in the powers of the Minicons. "He's really loving this, isn't he?"

"Of course he is. Lord Megatron has reached a level of power not seen in stellar cycles." Demolishor said loyally.

"And we're left in the dust." Skyquake grumbled.

"Hold your tongue! Lord Megatron does what he does for the Decepticon cause, for all of us! It's not our place to question him!"

"Which orientation film did you get that from?" Skyquake taunted. Demolishor gritted his teeth and stomped up to Skyquake.

"How dare you talk to a superior officer like-" An ion blast hit Demolishor in the chest and he fell back to the ground, a smoking scorch mark on his chest plate. Skyquake took out his rotary cannon and turned around. Optimus, Ironhide, Prowl and Jazz ran out of the ground bridge, weapons ready.

"A simple knock on the door would have sufficed, Megatron." Optimus said, charging up his ion cannon. "Did you have to go and wake up the whole neighborhood?"

Megatron stabbed the dark omni-saber into the ground and channeled its energy into the earth, culminating in a powerful shock wave that blasted outwards, blowing friend and foe off their feet. Optimus roll on his back and landed on his feet, recovering and charging at Megatron, drawing his battle axe.

XXXXXX

Sparkplug didn't know what to think. He never expected to run into Mugen like this, let alone learn that she was also hunting for Minicon stasis panels. Just from that alone he knew that she still didn't trust the Autobots to get the job done safely and was taking it upon herself to save her fellow Minicons. According to Night Scream, Mugen was strongly against contacting the Autobots for any reason, but had sent out a locator pulse and a few pictures to some "old friends" of hers-most likely she was referring to the children.

Mugen was one of the few survivors of the Solomus genocide, in which the second largest village on the moon was destroyed and its people massacred in what was believed to have been a Decepticon attack. Sparkplug and his friends would later learn that the massacre was caused by a group of rogue Autobots. Mugen had been harboring that hatred for years, acting as a spy for Leader-1 and helping him sabotage the Exodus. Mugen's fortitude didn't waver until she was ordered to kill the children to get back at the Autobots, which led to her defection and disappearance into the European countryside. This incident was still fresh in everyone's minds, and caused a rift between the Autobots and Minicons that was still being mended.

"Sara, how is our escape route working out." Sparkplug asked.

Sara blasted away at the metal door with her palm blasters, but she shook her head. "The walls are too thick, and it will take too much time to cut through it."

The Minicons jumped when the room began to shake from an explosion outside and Night Scream looked around worriedly. "What was that? Decepticons?"

"No," Sara said, a tiny, barely noticeable smile on her lips. "Help."

A long, pink beam saber stabbed through the door and began slicing through the metal like it was butter. It carved a large circle in the reinforced door and a hole was kicked in, revealing the white and purple form of the Athena.

"Gina, you made it!" Jolt cheered.

"Just in time, too." Gina said. "The Autobots are fighting Megatron's group right now and he's packing some serious firepower!"

"Then we better get out there and…" Sparkplug trailed off as the Prometheus stepped into view and lowered its hand, revealing Mugen. She jumped onto the ground and stared at her former friends. Sparkplug heard Emulator hiss at her.

"Sparkplug, fancy meeting you here." Mugen smiled, looking as elegant as ever. "Don't give me the silent treatment, I'm already getting enough that from the kids."

"You did attempt to kill them." Sara noted. Mugen looked at Sara, studying her for a few seconds, trying to figure out who she was.

"Who are you?"

"I am Sara, third generation android and Gina Harkins' protector." Sara announced. "Though we have not met prior to today, I admit to feeling some hostility towards you for having a hand in the near termination of my charge."

"…Android?" Mugen looked to Sparkplug for conformation. "When the hell did you get an android? As a matter of fact, when did the kids learn how to pilot talos?"

"You'd know if you didn't run away like a coward, nya." Emulator hissed.

"Don't star, Em, I didn't come here for a fight." Mugen said. Night Scream held Peppercat back from leaping at her. "As for you, Night Scream…"

"Look, Mugen," Night Scream gulped at the narrowing of her eyes. "I know you said hang back until you and the others got there, but-"

"I'll tan your aft later." She growled, making him look away in embarrassment. "But right now, we have other things to worry about."

"Yeah, like Megatron's Minicon blade!" Annie called out from the hall. "Seriously, he's done something to the Air Defense team and now they've gone crazy! We need to go help them and the Autobots."

"Come on, Sparkplug," Mugen said, walking back to the Prometheus. Sparkplug wondered what Darren was thinking about this, since he had yet to say anything. Probably nothing good. "Let's go save the Minicons that your Autobot friends left to rust."

Sparkplug scowled and glanced at Jolt and Peppercat before following the pink femme. He'll grill Mugen later on, right now Optimus and the others needed a helping hand.

XXXXXX

Optimus jumped back to avoid a quick slash from Megatron, but the energy leaking from the Omni-saber left a deep gash on his chest plate. Optimus spun on his toes and swung his axe, and Megatron blocked the attack, rushing in to punch Optimus in the jaw. Optimus leaned back to allow the punch to fly past his face before he grabbed Megatron's arm and move in close. He slammed his elbow into Megatron's face and twisted his arm to force him to lose his grip on the Omni-saber. The gestalt sword dropped to the ground and Optimus kicked Megatron away.

He tried to grab the Omni-saber for himself, but the minute his hands wrapped around the hilt, a searing pain surge through his hands and up his arms. The sword was burning him from touch alone!

"Jetstorm, Runway, Sonar, if you can hear me-resist! Whatever Megatron has done to you can still be undone!" Optimus said. "Remember who you are, what you stand for, believed in. The power is of the three, not the one!"

Taking a gamble, Optimus channeled some of the Matrix's energy through his body and into the sword, hoping that its pure energies would give the Minicons a fighting chance. He winced as he felt the combined team resist. He alone was not enough to free them, it had to be their choice alone.

"I can't compel you, I won't try," Optimus continued. "Instead, I beg you as an equal, help us!"

"You should have finished me when you had the chance, Prime!"

Megatron rammed into Optimus, knocking him to the ground. He pulled the omni-saber from the ground and stood over Optimus.

"You've never understood power. It must be shackled, reined, broken-and then unleashed!" Megatron snarled. "Show it weakness, show it respect-show it anything other than total control and it will break you!"

"Then you must've shattered into a million pieces by now!" Optimus retorted.

Megatron scowled and raised the saber to run it through Prime's Spark, but he was hit in the shoulder by an agitated particle beam that burned into his armor with immense heat. This distraction allowed Optimus to jumped to his feet and land a kick at Megatron's face.

"Optimus!" The omega talos descended on the battlefield, carrying Minicons both familiar and unfamiliar. Sparkplug jumped from Prometheus's hand and fell towards Optimus. "Heads up!"

Optimus let Sparkplug powerlink to his arm and felt that familiar surge of power rush through his body. Megatron cursed angrily and swung the Omni-saber at him, but Optimus ducked under the swipe and kicked the back of his knee to bring him down.

"Lord Megatron!" Demolishor transformed to his tank mode and opened fire on the children with his pulse cannons, trying to shoot one of them out of the sky. But he didn't notice Mugen and the LM team sneaking up behind him until Mugen had jumped on the hull of his tank mode and jammed her staff into his chassis. "Hey!"

Using her staff, Mugen sent a small, but powerful EMP wave surging through his body, causing his systems to freeze up. Demolishor groaned as a wave of nausea fell over him, followed by the sporadic glitches in his weapon systems. He couldn't target, he couldn't regain control of his missile payload, and trying to roll on his treads was next to impossible. Exerting himself, Demolishor returned to robot mode, and the Land Military team unleashed a hail of surprisingly devastating weapons fire on him.

"Get some!" Shot laughed as he pelted the Con's face with multiple plasma blasts.

As for Skyquake and Knockout, they were trying to fight off both the Autobots and the children's' talos at the same time. Particle beams and missiles pelted them from both sides and forced them into taking cover in a small gorge. As they fought off the combined forces of human and Autobot, Darren faced off against Megatron.

"That's your problem, Megatron. You don't respect the power," Darren said, gripping his control sticks tightly. "You don't respect it enough to keep it from making your reckless!"

"Silence you savage!" Megatron raised the Omni-saber to strike the Prometheus down, but to his horror, the blade began to break apart. "What? No!"

The Omni-saber lost its dark purple coloration, returning to its normal light blue colors of the Air Defense team. They separated and flew out of Megatron's hands, swarming around him and shooting at his face and chest.

"Let him have it, guys!" Runway said. "Show him that he's been a bad maniacal tyrant!"

"No, you're mine to command!" Megatron fired his fusion cannon, but they broke apart before the beam could destroy them. They were too fast for his slow moving beam to hit on target. "I order you to desist!"

"You can't order anyone around anymore, Megatron!" Darren said, and fired his beam rifle. The blast caught Megatron in the chest and sent him stumbling back. The agitated particles of the blast had burned a small, but deep hole in his chest that looked as painful as it felt.

"D-damn you!"

"Lord Megatron," Skyquake flew over to his leader in jet mode. "It's a lost cause. We've lost the Minicons. I believe it's time for a tactical retreat."

Megatron scowled and blew steam from his nose before transforming to his tank mode. "Decepticons, fall back! This isn't over boy!"

"I know." Darren said, watching Megatron and his team drive away back to their (half destroyed) bunker. He let out a shaky breath and leaned back in his seat. Fighting Megatron one on one without anyone watching his back? That had to be the stupidest thing he's ever done, without question.

XXXXXX

Later on, the kids were seeing Mugen's Minicon team off in private, away from Autobot eyes lest something unwanted be said from both parties. The Land Military team refused to join Sparkplug's group, and Night Scream remained behind to watch over them as Mugen's second in command.

"Are you serious?" Sparkplug exclaimed. "You saw how great a team we were back there!"

"Yeah, we could use your ass kicking abilities in our group." Jolt said. "We…we miss you, Mugen. We'll even vouch for you if you come back with us."

"I'm sorry, Sparkplug, but I can't go back." Mugen said, actually looking rather remorseful at her decision. "I can't forgive the Autobots for what they've done…or allowed to happen under their noses."

"But it wasn't their fault." Gina said.

"But Prowl knew, and that makes him guilty by default, and the others by association." She replied. "We left Cybertron to escape their war and it followed us, now we have to find the rest of our kind lost on this planet. You help the Autobots scorch another world, Sparkplug. We'll look for the other Minicons."

Sparkplug scowled, but Darren placed a hand on his shoulder, walking past him to face Mugen. Her face softened as he went to speak with her; she always had a soft spot for the kids. They, like her, were victims of this terrible war by circumstance alone.

"Razor misses you, you know." He told her. "She has Kevin and Penny now, but it would make her day if you just saw her once."

"And I miss her too, but I'm sorry. I can't go back." She insisted. Darren wondered if she was punishing herself for the role she had in almost killing them.

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. Shot appeared next to him and gave him a rough pat on the back that almost sent him to the ground.

"Hey, kid, sorry about earlier. Didn't mean to sound uncaring." He apologized. "You're right about one thing-it is our fight, and there are a lot of Minicons who need our help. You do your job your way, and we'll do ours. All that matters is saving those Minicons."

"That's a great plan." Darren smiled and shook Shot's hand.

After saying their goodbyes, Mugen and her team transformed and parted ways with the children and guardians. But just before she vanished into the wilderness, Mugen yelled back some parting words for her friends.

"Tell Tracer I miss her too!" She called back.

Annie walked up to Darren as he watched them disappear from view. "Think we'll see her again?"

"Definitely. You know how things like this go." Gina said and yawned. "Now, let's go home. I'm sure the Bots are itching to give us a good scolding."

"Wonderful." Annie groaned.

Jolt and Sparkplug watched their friends drive away with solemn expressions.

"Are you sure we should let them go? Mugen could still turn the other Minicons against the Autobots." Jolt said.

"I trust Mugen to know when to stop. At the very least she'll know not to drag others into a conflict they don't want to be a part of." Sparkplug said. "I just hope that she'll find peace with herself and learn to move on."

Jolt nodded and looked to the horizon. "That's all we can do in this life."


	25. Fly Me to the Moon

Chapter 25-Fly Me to the Moon

A fireball fell from the sky.

This wasn't a rare occurrence, space debris always fell into Terra's atmosphere every day and burned up in orbit before even reaching the stratosphere, with the occasional meteor reaching the ground. The difference was that this wasn't some random piece of space debris from some far flung corner of the solar system. It was something else entirely…something artificial.

The fireball fell towards a large cornfield in the Midwestern region of the Osean continent, somewhere in the state of Wyoming. It nearly hit a water tower, but its trajectory adjusted and crashed into the field with a loud boom. Once the dust clear, it was made evident that this was no simple meteor. It was a giant obelisk made of white stone that wasn't native to Terra. An obelisk that was one of many that landed across Osea and Azteca. At the base of each pillar, four stabilizers dug into the ground to keep it upright, and the top of the pillar slid apart to release dozens of tiny devices that surrounded the monolith. A tiny satellite dish rose from the tip of the obelisk and began transmitting signals to the human satellites in orbit.

No one was any wiser as the obelisk used the humans own radio waves to increase its own signal, one invisible to human radio waves. An alien signal.

XXXXXX

"That's it!" Sparkplug shouted as he kicked over a rack upon entering Wheeljack's workshop. "I quit!"

Jolt and Longarm, who were working on a hover platform for Minicon and human use to better travel the large ship, turned to the yellow mech as he let out his frustration in an uncharacteristic manner. Two days had passed since their little adventure with the children to rescue the Air Defense Team, and the Autobots, Optimus especially, were less than thrilled to hear the details of their unsanctioned rescue mission. The kids were grounded from going out on missions for the week and the Minicons were strongly reprimanded, with some of their exploratory freedoms revoked for the time being. No one was happy that day, and the healing rift between Optimus and Sparkplug was torn open again.

"Your little chat with Prime didn't go very well, did it?" Longarm asked, working on the hovercraft's repulsor system.

"No, Longarm, it did not. I tried to explain why we did what we did, but…I don't know." Sparkplug groaned tiredly and rubbed his face. "It just came out wrong."

Longarm shook his head. "Sparkplug, I know you're trying, but face it, we're Minicons, and they're Autobots. Common homeworld aside, the status quo is drastically one-sided. Try it now, Jolt."

Jolt turned on the hovercraft, and it gave a low hum before spinning around violently, not even moving from its position. As Jolt tried to control the thing, Longarm and Sparkplug continued their conversation.

"The Autobots mean well, and they've been really helpful to us," Longarm said over Jolt's terrified screams. "But as with the business with the Air Defense Team demonstrated…"

"It's not us who's calling the shots." Sparkplug frowned. "Right."

The hovercraft finally stopped spinning and Jolt fell onto his back in a daze. Longarm looked down at him. "Well?"

"S-Speed control," Jolt groaned. "N-Needs more work."

Sparkplug looked around the room, at the massive ship that was their home for a little over a year now. Despite its size, it all felt constricting, like it was a cage. "You know, for all the Autobots have dressed this place up, it can't disguise the fact that this is just a holding facility." Sparkplug motioned to the immense room around them. "And that we're a long way from home."

XXXXXX

"Come on, Gina, hang out with us." Darren begged his girlfriend. He, Annie and Gina had just gotten out of school for the day and they were just enjoying a seemingly normal day as children. While hanging out with the Autobots and fighting Decepticons on crazy missions, past near death experiences had taught them to find joy in the simple things.

"I have homework, Darren. You have homework." Gina smiled coyly, loving the idea of leading him around. It was fun watching him chase after her. "The mall will still be there tomorrow."

"Ah, but we live in strange times, my little genius. Lights in the sky, crop circles, alien abductions," Darren wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. "I live each day as if it were my last on Terra."

"Crop circles? Darren, that's all fake." Gina laughed. Hard to see any stories about alien abductions and crop circles seriously after hanging out with real aliens that are nothing like the little grey men people imagine seeing.

"But what about the probes?" He asked, popping a kiss on her cheek to make her giggle. "You better hope those are fake, too." His teasing was interrupted when someone gave him a hard shove forward, making him fall onto his back. "Hey!"

He looked up and saw Billy and Fred standing there laughing at him. He thought that they forgot about him after Annie's little meltdown scared them off last winter. Gina frowned and helped him to his feet.

"Sorry Astro-Boy, was your flight grounded?" Billy laughed. Gina stepped forward, but Fred's round form got in her way.

"Easy, Gina. This is a private grudge match." Fred said. He lost most of his bravado upon seeing the murderous look in Gina's blue eyes.

Darren looked back and cursed when he saw a wad of gum sticking to the back of his shirt. This made Billy laugh harder. "Aw, look, you found my gum! But hey, you can have it!"

"That's it!" Darren tore the gum off his shirt with his telekinesis and glared at the bully. He wasn't one to start school fights, but that was back when he was afraid of getting discovered. His new handle on his powers have increased his confidence, and now he was not afraid to give Billy the beat down he deserved. "I've had enough of your crap!"

"Oh, did I wake the dragon?" Billy taunted.

"Damn right you did," Darren said, slamming a fist into his palm. "You've had this coming."

Gina, who had Fred on the ground with one hand held behind his back, looked up at her boyfriend. "Darren, he's not worth it."

"Oh, he totally is."

"Yeah right," Billy smirked. "You and what arm-wah!"

Billy ducked as High Wire, in vehicle mode, jumped over his head and did a wheelie around the boy. Sureshock also leapt at Fred after rushing him from the bushes, chasing him like a shark. Annie ran up to the odd sight, holding Grindor in her arm.

"Whoa, what are guys doing?" Annie asked.

"Saving you guys!" Sureshock replied.

"Oh, just get us out of here!" Gina hopped on Sureshock, while Darren grabbed onto High Wire. With the bullies well and truly frightened, the three children rode out of the parking lot and down the street.

"High Wire, you shouldn't do things like that." Darren scolded. "Especially not in full view of other people."

"So long as they do not see our true forms, we can play it safe." High Wire said. "So long as you three are safe, I see no problem in bending the rules a bit."

Darren looked down at the disguised Minicon and sighed. "We are such a bad influence on you guys."

XXXXXX

It was sundown when the kids and their guardians decided to call it a day after spending their afternoon at the mall (Gina still had no idea how they managed to convince her to skip studying to head to the movies). The girls were waiting with the Minicons while Darren got their lunch from a food stand on the way home.

"So you're saying there are actual crop circles?" Sureshock asked.

"Yeah, there's hundreds of them, but they're all fake." Gina shrugged.

"But wasn't there another incident in Wyoming?" Annie hummed. "A farmer just found one burned into his cornfield, a big one."

"Pranks made by country boys who couldn't get any dates Friday night." Gina said dismissively. "Come on, Annie, we're friends with real aliens right here with better things to do than vandalize some farmer's crops and draw in the dirt."

Annie shrugged and jumped up to allow Grindor to do a flip under her. "Who knows? It's a large universe."

"Not large enough for us, though." Grindor muttered.

"And it's getting late," Darren said as he returned holding their food. He handed the girls their bags and got on High Wire. "Let's drop Gina at her place and head back home. Debbie's working a late shift at the hospital."

Gina smiled at him. "Darren, I don't need to be escorted home."

"I know, but what kind of boyfriend would I be if I didn't see my lady safely home?" He said in a suave tone.

"Aww, you lover boy!" Gina gushed and they shared a kiss. Annie rolled her eyes and rode past them.

"Good grief. Let's go before they head to second base." She remarked. The Minicons drove onto the street as soon as their friends were secure and went down the familiar street that would take them out of downtown. Darren took a deep breath of the fresh night air and smiled.

"This is a nice ride." Darren commented, placing his arms behind is head to let High Wire balance for him. "And to think I used to peddle, right High Wire? High Wire?" He tapped the mech's handlebars to get his attention. "You okay there bud-whoa!"

He quickly held on tight to the handlebars as High Wire, Sureshock and Grindor suddenly increased their speed without warning. The girls tried to talk to their partners as well, but they wouldn't respond as well.

"Darren, what's happening?" Gina exclaimed. "Why aren't they answering?"

Annie yelped as a car made a sudden stop and almost crashed into a truck. Thankfully, Grindor still had enough awareness to avoid these obstacles in his path. "Why are the traffic lights suddenly headlights?"

They swerved off the chaotic streets that became a traffic nightmare thanks to the malfunctioning traffic lights, and the Minicons drove towards the outskirts of the city, compelled by some invisible force. Darren saw that they were reaching the forest, and at this time of day, they could easily get lost once the sun goes down.

"Oh, this is bad!" Darren said.

XXXXXX

"They're gone?!" Megatron roared.

"Y-yes, my lord," Knockout gulped. He stood before Megatron on the Nemesis' bridge as he gave his commander the _really_ bad news. "The Minicons are all gone, even Songbird. Apparently they used the ground bridge to leave the ship."

Megatron thought about it for a minute, then calmed down, rubbing his chin in thought. "Most curious. They know full well they're tagged. It's not as though they can hide."

Unless they weren't trying to hide at all. Given Songbird's loyalty to Nightshade, to suddenly desert her was very strange. Was it possible that she and the others were being compelled by something?

"Orders, my liege?"

"Track them, but do not engage." Megatron ordered. "I sense this is a prelude to something greater."

XXXXXX

They're gone?" Optimus said, staring at Prowl in shock. Much like Megatron, Optimus was just given the bad news-the Minicons were missing. Even the personal friends of the Autobots-Road Storm, Razor, Emulator, even Sparkplug; everyone was gone. According to the security logs, they all used the ground bridge from a remote link in their quarters-a link Optimus and the others didn't even know they had.

"Should I try to contact them? They've essentially deserted us, and I know Sparkplug is not the one to up and leave, unless…" Ratchet thought better than to mention the recent argument between the Micron leader and Prime, so he cleared his throat. "Well, maybe he needed to cool off."

"Meaning I overreacted? Perhaps I did, Ratchet, but they went against by explicit orders during that incident." Optimus said firmly.

"I'm just saying, they're not Autobots, and we can't treat them like subordinates."

"Ratchet, this is our ship. Our ship, our rules. That is something the Minicons must abide by." Prowl said. "They may be an independent faction, but as long as their affairs mingle with ours, they must adhere to authority."

"All of which served to drive them away." Optimus sighed and pressed a button. "Teletran, bring up the previous ground bridge coordinates. We need to know where the Minicons are going."

XXXXXX

The mind controlled Minicons took the kids outside of town and deep into the forest. With the sun having fully set by now, it was night and the forest was pitch black without any lights. The kids were unable to call the Autobots without falling off their fast moving Minicons, so all they could do was pray their friends didn't go too far. Soon they exited the forest and entered a large clearing near the location where they found the first escape pod last year on that fateful afternoon. Only something was very different about the place.

"What the hell is that?" Annie gaped.

In the middle of the clearing near the mountain where they found the escape pod was a thirty foot stone pillar inside an energy dome. And to their surprise and horror, they saw Sparkplug, Longarm and the other Minicons walking towards it in a trance.

"This is weird." Gina said.

"Whatever that thing is, it's collecting the Minicons up like action figures. Huh?" Darren looked down at High Wire when he came to a sudden stop and yelped when his friend switched forms, throwing him off. Sureshock and Grindor did the same thing.

"Guys? Come on, snap out of it!" Annie begged, starting to panic." Darren, stop them!"

"I can't, not without hurting them." He said. The Minicons didn't even glance their way as they all entered the energy field and continued towards the pillar. Darren looked up and saw a small radio dish on top of the obelisk. "Wait, you guys see that?"

"I do." Gina narrowed her eyes. "That thing is definitely alien, but it's not dolem made."

"We need to get the Bots here, stat!" Annie exclaimed.

"We're already here, kid!"

A ground bridge opened up and the Autobots flooded out of the portal. The kids smiled in relief, thinking that with the Autobots here, things might actually start looking up.

"Oh thank god." Annie breathed.

"That thing has the Minicons in some kind of trance." Gina pointed to the pillar. "It's drawing them to it!"

"We got it, kid!" Ironhide charged up his cannons and pointed them at the pillar. "Prime, we clear to shoot.

"Just keep your aim high." Optimus aimed his ion cannon at the target. "Fire!"

At Prime's command, the Autobots opened fire on the obelisk with their weapons, mostly energy weapons to cause maximum damage. To their surprise and dismay, their weapons had little effect as they hit and dispersed against the spherical energy field.

"Great, that thing's got a shield!" Bumblebee groaned.

When the smoke cleared, two dozen panels opened up on the pillar near its base on four sides. Nearly two dozen laser emitters slid out and began shooting at the Autobots.

"And it has guns! Ow!" Jazz hissed as a laser hit his arm, blasting off a chunk of armor.

"Wheeljack, can you find a way to get this barrier down?" Optimus asked. The Minicons were now passing through the no-go zone of the field and they couldn't get close enough without being shot at. "We need to get in close."

"Not without knowing what it is, first!" Wheeljack said.

"Skyfire, Tomahawk, can you get it from above?" Arcee called.

The two flyers were trying to attack the pillar from above, firing missiles and laser blasts at the dome, but they too had little luck in that regard. In fact, they were busy dodging the laser light show that was trying to shoot them down.

"No luck up here, Arcee," Tomahawk said. "Our payload can't even dent that thing. The field is too strong."

Darren bit his lip as he saw the Autobots struggling to break through the barrier and groaned when he saw the Minicons entering the odd structure. "They're not going to make it."

"Darren, look!" Gina pointed at the base of the pillar. Her enhanced eyes could see the doors slide closed behind the Minicons once they were all inside. Then she took notice of the four nozzles on the bottom of the pillar-they were rockets! This obelisk was a spaceship!

XXXXXX

Thousands of miles down south in Azteca, the Decepticons were also meeting fierce resistance in the retrieval of their Minicons. Megatron was leading the assault from the ground and sky. Unfortunately for the, this pillar was packing as much firepower as the other two, loaded with an assortment of heat seeking missiles and pulse cannons that lit up the sky with explosions like fireworks.

"Lord Megatron, we're not making any progress with the barrier." Dreadwing reported.

"Don't give me that! Attack it with everything you've got!" Megatron roared, firing his fusion cannon at the energy barrier in his tank mode.

As she shot arrows from Gandiva, Nightshade saw four panels slide open at the base of the obelisk and four rockets emerge. As soon as the last Minicon was inside, the rockets ignited and the pillar began to take off. The Cons on the ground were forced to back away from the intense flames, while the flyers that tried to assault the airborne obelisk was still met with strong resistance from its weapons systems.

"No, damn you!" Megatron roared and continued shooting at the obelisk. "Fall, fall!"

Despite his futile attempts to disable it, the obelisk had quickly reached the upper atmosphere, far from the reach of the Cons, along with the other two that were launching from Delpoi. In just an hour, the entire population of Minicons on Terra had been taken off the planet.

"Damn it all to hell!" Megatron snarled. "Knockout, link the Nemesis to the humans' satellite network and track that rocket! We need to bring it down before it passes the moon!"

"Megatron," Nightshade landed next to him and pointed at the spot the pillar had launched from. "Look."

He followed her gaze and his eyes went wide at the smoking patch of grass on the ground. Burned into the ground like a massive brand was a symbol-the faction symbol of the Micron faction.

XXXXXX

The Autobots and the distraught children returned to the Ark, desperately trying to make sense of the situation. For the children, seeing their friends getting snatched up like toy soldiers and flown off into space was unsettling and they wanted answers.

"Optimus, what just happened?" Gina asked. "What was that rocket?"

"I don't know, Gina, but that symbol it left behind leaves an obvious clue as to who's behind this." Optimus said, not slowing his stride down the hall.

They entered the computer hub, where Ratchet was working at the terminal studying the footage of the battle against the obelisk. The medic stared at the screen, then turned to Optimus. "Optimus, that symbol…"

"I know, Ratchet," Optimus replied. "But have you checked the shuttle's trajectory?"

"I tried, but that energy barrier is probably blocking its heat signature." Ratchet shook his head helplessly. "I'm sorry, but it's gone."

"Don't say that, doc. I know you can find them." Annie said. "We're not giving up now!"

"No one's giving up, Annie. But we need to know what we're dealing with if we want to save them." Bulkhead said.

"Maybe that huge Micron symbol in the ground is a clue?" Skyfire shrugged. "I don't know, it's just a hunch."

"That's the symbol of the Micron, the neutral Minicon faction." Lifeline said. "But I thought the ones we had and the Decepticon Mini-Cons were the only active ones on this planet."

"Not exactly," Darren said, getting their attention. "Now that I think about it, Sparkplug said when the Exodus dropped out of fold space into Terra's orbit, it crashed into the moon before falling to Terra. It broke in half, with the front half falling to the planet."

"Hold up, you think Minicons are behind this?" Sunstreaker snorted. "Those little dudes can barely lift a screw without needing a hovercraft to move it. What makes you think they're capable of staging a take over?"

"Dude," Rodimus placed a hand on Sunstreaker's shoulder. "As the resident stand in for Sideswipe, I am obligated to tell you to stop talking before someone makes you look stupid."

"It's been nearly 4 million years since the Exodus crashed on Terra, what's so impossible about active Minicons living on the moon?" Arcee said. "The winter solstice had already caused some panels to activate prematurely, after all."

"If that's true, then we already know where our Minicons were taken to." Prowl said.

Optimus nodded. "The moon."

XXXXXX

Sparkplug had been through some pretty strange experiences, but this one had to be on the top three. There was a huge hole in his memory, from helping Jolt and Longarm in the Ark, to waking up here, with friend and for lying around him. He had to work with Leader-1 of all people to wake up their respective comrades. They were all stuck in a large cell sealed by a hard-light energy barrier. There wasn't much to see outside other than a dimly lit hallway. Seeing that they had no other options, Sparkplug did the only thing he could do-yell.

"Hey! Hey!" Sparkplug yelled into the hall. "Is anyone there?"

He waited for a reply, or for someone to come shut him up, but nothing happened. Sparkplug exhaled and kicked the energy field.

"Shouting doesn't work, who would've thought." Leader-1 taunted.

"Shut up, Leader-1," Sparkplug said. "Why hasn't anyone come? I mean, whoever brought us here must have done so for a reason."

"Ever think this might be the reason?"

Everyone turned to Mugen, who was leaning against the stone wall at the back fo the cell. The low light made her pink armor look darker, and her magenta eyes glowed brightly as she glared at both Sparkplug and Leader-1. "Think about it. As far as we know, this is the sum total of Minicons currently on Terra. Our presence is a catalyst for war, if follows us around like a bad smell."

"So somebody decided to just remove us? Lock us up and throw away the key?" Runway crossed his arms. "I don't buy it."

"Absolutely not." Sonar said.

"No way." Jetstorm shook his head.

"Even if you're right, Mugen, the question is still who." Sparkplug said. Cannobolt let out a frustrated grunt.

"I'm is stick of talking!" He roared. "I will break us out!"

Before he could transform, Emulator jumped on his back and jammed her fingers into his cranium to give him a powerful shock, bringing him to his knees. Sureshock kicked him in the face for good measure.

"You can't transform in here, you moron!" She hissed. "You'll bounce off the barrier and kill all of us in here!"

Roll Bar went to study the barrier. "This obviously isn't Terran technology. Too sophisticated, even for OZ. Some alien race perhaps?"

"Actually, Roll Bar, the answers are right in front of you."

The Minicons turned their attention back to the front of the cell, and saw three Minicons standing at the entrance. Sparkplug quickly recognized them as Dualor, a dark blue mech, the bright orange Drill Bit with a drill on his right arm, and Bonesaw, a yellow mech with a saw on his left arm. They were the Destruction Minicon team, and standing behind them was another gestalt, like Centurion, who had black/rose colored armor and stood at 11 feet tall.

"Heavy Metal." High Wire whispered. The female Minicon gestalt gave him a sardonic smile.

"High Wire." She said in a multilayered voice.

"Dualor, Drill Bit and Bonesaw," Sparkplug couldn't believe his eyes. "You're all alive."

"Us and many more." Dualor nodded.

"But where are we? What's with the force field?" sparkplug leaned in, but Jolt held him back. "And how did we get here, anyway? I can't remember a thing."

"All your questions will be answered, I promise." Dualor said. He nodded to Drill Bit to open the door. "Now, stand away from the barrier, and please-" Heavy Metal pointed her weapons at them. "-No sudden moves."

The captive Minicons tensed up, and the Street Action team looked ready to combine, but Undertone gave them a discreet shake of the head. No sense in starting a fight without knowing everything they can.

"So…we're your prisoners. Is that it?" Sparkplug asked bitterly.

Dualor held up his hands in a placating gesture. "The manner of your extraction was direct, abrupt. Your first reaction may be volatile. So I took precautions."

"Stand down boys," Shot whispered to his team. "But stay on guard."

"Sparkplug, Leader-1, High Wire, come with me, see all that we've accomplished here." Dualor invited them to follow him. "This is for the best. Trust me…you're home now!"

Sparkplug and High Wire traded worried glances. This felt like it was going to more of a permanent stay for them. And that Terra was a long ways off.

XXXXXX

"If we worked this out, it's a fair bet Megatron has too. We must go on the possibility that all active Minicons on Terra were captured." Optimus told his team.

"So what now?" Annie asked. "Couldn't you guys use the ground bridge to get to the moon or something?"

"Too risky." Wheeljack said. "The ground bridge was only designed for planetary transportation. Trying to send a bridge to Luna would only cause the bridge to strain and potentially snap, scattering us into space."

"Which means we will have to fly." Tomahawk said.

"And the Cons have flyers in spades, so we're slag out of luck in that regard." Rodimus said.

"Guys, our talos can fly and survive in space." Darren called out. "We can give Skyfire and Tomahawk some backup up there."

Optimus almost instinctively refused his request, but then thought about it. They didn't have the luxury of holding back right now. Sparkplug and the others were in trouble, and Megatron wasn't going to hesitate to send all of his flyers to the moon. The Cons had them on air superiority, and the talos were exceptional in atmospheric and zero-G conditions, as Gina had proved during her mission on Cybertron.

"Children, get your pilot suits and man your talos. You three will be flying to Luna with Skyfire and Tomahawk."

"Hell yeah, we're going to the moon!" Annie cheered.

"You three make it quick. I'm sure Megatron has already sent his air units to space as well." Prowl said.

And he was right. On Decepticon Island, Megatron stood before Nightshade and the Seekers as they prepared to take off.

"I don't need to tell you how important this is." Megatron said, glaring at all of them. "If our Minicons were targets, chances are that the Autobots' pets were also taken. Go up there, locate those Minicons and bring them all to me!"

Dreadwing nodded. "We will not-"

"Don't say you won't fail until you've actually completed the mission, Dreadwing." Megatron hissed. The new aerospace commander nodded and fell back in line.

"If everyone understands the mission, then you know what to do." Nightshade said and transformed to her beast mode. "It's time we started this game."

"Game?" Thundercracker inquired.

"Yes, Thundercracker, a game," She flew into the air and the Seekers followed her lead. "A game called Hunt the Minicon!"

XXXXXX

As Dualor gave his "guests" a tour of his hidden lunar sanctuary, Sparkplug and High Wire realized that he had built a literal fortress within the moon. Everything was underground, hidden from human satellites, drones and protected from harmful radiation. The base itself was small, just large enough to comprise the entire canyon with numerous caves leading to the surface.

During the tour, Sparkplug saw other Minicons he thought he'd never see again; the Space Team, the Race team, the Street Speed team, and the Emergency team. They were all living on Luna, and no one was any wiser to their presence above their heads.

"We started with very little-the remains of the Exodus, its cargo, and what raw materials this rock had to offer…and look what we made!" Dualor grinned at his peers. "A home away from home. Secure, self-sufficient, defensible. A sanctuary…a fortress!"

"This is unbelievable," High Wire whispered, and looked at Breakage, one of Heavy Metal's components. "But I don't see Redline, Combusta and Kingbolt's teams. Where are they?"

"They were among the last of the Minicons to be jettisoned before the ship hit the planet. Locating them has been difficult." She said.

"We're already in the process of locating four new panels on the planet, however." Dualor motioned to the control center where the Space Team were already working at their stations. "Thanks to the efforts of Astroscope and his team, we were able to find them, and you. All thanks to a psionic radio wave that attracts Minicon brainwaves. I won't bore you with the science behind it, but it's how we brought you here."

"When hostilities started on Cybertron, we avowed our independence, dug in deep," Breakage gave Leader-1 a harsh glare. "But thanks to bottom feeders like you we lost our homes to Megatron as he tore our defenses apart."

"I did what I had to do to get my revenge for Solomus. I'm guiltless in my Spark." Leader-1 growled.

"Well, worry no longer, you're not the only Decepticon traitor, Leader-1." Dualor said. He pointed to a three mechs patrolling the center-a pair of twins, one white, the other black, and the third bright green and orange mech. "Rook, Crosswise and Thunder (Armada Inferno) were also like you, they joined the Cons for power as well. But I gave them a chance, join our lunar commute as free individuals…or end up as space dust on the solar winds. They made the right choice."

High Wire glared at Dualor. "And us? When did you decided we wanted in?"

Dualor snorted. "When the alternative was being Megatron's pet power cell or Prime's lackey, I think I'm doing you a favor."

They walked deeper into the base, passing by three escape shuttles that were salvaged from the Exodus' hangar bay, and the armory that was full of weapons. Weapons that Sparkplug didn't recognize. "I don't remember outfitting the Exodus with anti-aircraft weapons."

"The missiles and laser arrays are last minute additions I made before we launched from Hydrau, courtesy of a certain trader of questionable goods."

"Swindle." Leader-1 hissed. Sparkplug was just as incensed.

"So you went behind my back and made backroom deals?" He yelled.

"I did what I needed to do to preserve our kind! Don't accuse me of nothing when all I've done is salvage your mess!" Dualor shouted, losing his composure. "I did all of this for you, for High Wire, even for Leader-1. I did it for all Minicons! We don't have to slaves to the Autobots or Decepticons anymore! I saved you!"

"Saved us? You afforded us the same lack of consideration as the Decepticons!" High Wire said.

Dualor nearly punched High Wire clean in the jaw, but he held himself back. "If you can't see the difference between this and living at Optimus Prime's beck and call, or being Megatron's slave, then you've been more thoroughly brainwashed than I realized."

"It's not brainwashing, it's friendship. Some of us have made friends with the Autobots, and I've made friends with the humans who freed us!" High Wire replied. "It's thanks to them that we're even having this conversation!"

"So you'd rather be glorified bodyguards to a bunch of insignificant fleshies? And you were supposed to be our greatest warrior." Dualor spat. "No matter, if Centurion is useless, then Heavy Metal will pick up your slack."

"They'll come you know," Leader-1 spoke up. "The Decepticons, the Autobots, maybe even High Wire's human pets. They'll all come once they realize where we are."

"Well then," Dualor's grin was chilling enough to make even Leader-1 step back. "Bring them on!"

XXXXXX

Nightshade and the Seekers were already on their way to Luna, having used the ground bridge to teleport them half way into Terra's orbit before flying the rest of the way themselves. They were soon in the weightless environment of space and were circling around to the dark side of the moon.

"Seekers, keep your sensors sharp and be ready for anything." Nightshade said. "There's a chance they're already expecting unwanted visitors."

"Nightshade, we're approaching their outer defenses." Thundercracker reported.

As they neared Luna's dark side, they could see an entire cloud of proximity mines being released into space from hidden launchers on the moon's surface. The Cons knew that as soon as they within less than a foot of those mines, they could explode. Which didn't sound too bad, as all they had to was avoid them, but they weren't expecting the mines to suddenly fly towards them. Nightshade fired a swarm of missile darts from her wings to detonate the mines.

"Seekers, take evasive action!" Dreadwing weaved through the exploding mine field, shooting his laser guns at the deadly spheres.

"For Megatron's sake," Skywarp grunted as he took two mines to his underside. He transformed and started shooting them down, trying to avoid the ones coming at him from all directions. "There's too many of them to bust through!"

"Then shoot them down!" Skyquake yelled.

"Skywarp, teleport me and Dreadwing into the moon's orbit!" Nightshade commanded.

Skywarp complied, taking hold of the two Cons and warping them closer to the moon. But as soon as they appeared, missile pods disguised as moon rockets emerged from the ground and fired a heavy volley of anti-aircraft missiles and artillery. Nightshade transformed and shot three of them down with Gandiva, but got hit in her wing from a missile that caught her from behind. Another caught Dreadwing in his leg, and Skywarp lost a chunk of armor on his arm from a well-placed laser blast to his shoulder. In the mine field, Thundercracker flew as fast as he could around the oncoming missiles, but they followed suit.

"Laser-guided, frag me!" Thundercracker weaved through the canyons to use the natural terrain as cover, but the hidden photon turrets opened fire at him as he passed through, pelting him with white hot bursts that tore into his armor. He cursed and swayed unsteadily, hitting the canyon wall and crashing into the ground, rolling to a stop amidst a pile of and lunar rocks.

XXXXXX

This chaos is exactly what Skyfire, Tomahawk and the children came upon as they flew towards Lung's dark side. The dark half of the moon was alit with explosions blossoming in space, laser fire, missiles and the bright white light that could only come from Gandiva. Skyfire and Tomahawk took point, with the children taking up the rear. The three talos were emitting a huge amount of sol particles, which masked their radar signature from enemy sensors, covering their approach. This was the only reason the mines weren't chasing them down like bloodhounds.

This was a surreal experience for Darren and Annie, as this was their first time in space. Even though it was nowhere near as extravagant as going to Cybertron, it was still mind blowing…and a bit terrifying. There was no air, save for the dull sound of explosions going off, as if they were covering their ears. The cockpits of their talos were pressurized, so they didn't have to worry about air, and their pilot suits were also made for Zero-G environments, but there always that lingering fear of what would happen if their cockpit was breeched, or if their suits were ripped. It was only thanks to Gina and Skyfire keeping them grounding in reality that they didn't freeze mid-battle.

"You doin' okay there, kids?" Skyfire asked.

"Y-Yeah, we're fine." Darren said. "It's just…really hard to take in at first. I mean, we're in space!"

"This is so fucking awesome and weird at the same time." Annie whispered.

"Just focus on what's in front of you." Gina said. "Don't let the vastness of space get to you. Just keep your eyes on the prize and fight like you always do."

"Says the girl who hitched a ride to Cybertron." Annie muttered.

"Annie, please, we'll get through this." Gina promised her. "We have to, for Sparkplug and the others."

Annie took a deep breath and tightened her grip on the control sticks. "Okay, let's get this done."

"We'll fly in arrow formation," Tomahawk said. "Skyfire and I will take up the rear. Darren, Annie and Gina, you three will form the tip of the spear. We'll be relying on you guys to cover our approach for as long as possible until they get a visual on us. By then, it'll be too late for them."

"Got it." Darren switched his talos into flight mode and got into position with the girls. "All right, people, let's go get our friends back!"

XXXXXX

Sparkplug's unease grew as more tremors shook the base. The monitors were showing Dreadwing and Skyquake attacking the front doors while Thundercracker and Skywarp took out the automated guns. Bonesaw led the three Minicons to their cells.

"Seems pretty intense," Sparkplug noted, mentally mapping the halls they went down. "Can the place stand up to that sort of punishment?"

"Better believe it. There's moon rock reinforced with tritenium from the ship's hull and force fields between us and them." Bonesaw said. "Now move it! You just tell your buddies that this is as safe as they'll ever be."

"And if we still want to leave?" High Wire asked. He was still aggravated from his argument with Dualor and was itching for a fight.

"Then we'll show you the door!"

Nightshade fired another arrow to take out the missile pod near her, but two proton blasts hit her legs. She fell to her knees and caught a few armor piercing rounds to the face before she smashed it apart. She cursed and tried to stand, but Thundercracker had to help her up. She saw that the other Seekers were also having problems getting past the base's defenses. These Minicons were well-equipped for any invader in mind.

"Slag," Nightshade hissed. They weren't getting anywhere with a frontal assault. "Seekers, fall back!"

The Cons disengaged and followed Nightshade back to their secondary positions near the lunar canyons for cover. When the Minicons saw this, they were elated.

"The Decepticons are retreating!" Rook announced. "Minicons, we have drove them back!"

The Minicons cheered at their victory, but Dualor and his team weren't as happy. He pushed pasted the crowed and continued towards the command center.

"Looks like we have 'em on the ropes." Drill Bit said.

"They'll be back in force. Count on it." Dualor said. He knew the next time the Cons come attacking, it'll be a close fight that will probably cost them a lot of artillery in the process. "How are our guests, Bonesaw?"

"Figure Sparkplug and High Wire are gonna be a problem. Not sure about Leader-1, but some of the others are going to be a problem." Bonesaw crossed his arms with a grunt. "But they'll come around…in time."

Dualor frowned. He wasn't worried about Sparkplug's group of pencil pushers, but Leader-1's cabal could prove to be a problem. They weren't numerous, but could still pose a threat if they weren't monitored carefully. But no matter how much they whined and cried, he wasn't going to let them go just like that. Not when their kind was at their strongest.

"I just got word from Astroscope," Indy (Armada Mirage), leader of the combiner Race team that formed the Skyboom Shield, said as he approached the group. "He said two Autobots and three unknowns just appeared in out cameras south of the base."

"Five bogeys? How the hell did they get past the minefield and our sensor web?" Bonesaw growled. Indy shrugged.

"Three unknowns?" Drill Bit inquired.

"Must be those three humans Leader-1 was talking about. The Street Action team's human pets," Dualor spat. "Pathetic."

So not only did they have Autobots and Decepticons knocking at their doors, but the humans were getting in on the action, too? Fine, he'll kill them all if that's what it took to ensure Minicon independence. Dualor knew Sparkplug's Exodus ship was going to end up in flames, but he still went along with it anyway because it promised to ferry Minicons out of Decepticon…and Autobot hands.

Sure, some may argue that the Decepticons had always been the primary aggressors, but in their own way, the Autobots are no different. They had become dangerously dependent on Minicon augmentation. Dualor knew that it wasn't going to end on Terra, so he took it upon himself to take the Minicons stranded on Terra out of the equation. He knew doing so would provoke a reaction from both sides, but he was prepared. No one, Autobot, Decepticon or human was going to take away their freedom!

"What should we do? I doubt some of the others are willing to attack the Autobots." Drill Bit asked.

"Then we put some like-minded bots in charge of operations." Dualor turned to Indy. "Tell Breakage and Terradive to man the secondary pulse cannons and charge up the rail guns. We'll tear the Autobots down ourselves!"

XXXXXX

"So what the hell was that?" Thundercracker asked, nursing a shoulder wound. "We were completely thrashed out there! I thought this was going to be easy."

"We were unprepared, Thundercracker, that's all." Nightshade said, sitting on a boulder. "In our zeal, I forgot the first rule of battle. Find a weakness and exploit it for all its worth."

The Decepticons were recuperating in a small canyon two miles away from the Minicon base. It was hell getting there with all the hidden artillery and cannons, but they managed to fly out of range and give themselves some breathing room. They were slagged in all but name, but now it was time to think of a new battle plan.

"Is there a weakness?" Skywarp grumbled. He had it almost as bad as Nightshade, having taken the brunt of the base's auto-guns upon teleporting into the base's field of view. "All I'm seeing, Nightshade, is shields, reinforced rock and a whole slew of armaments."

"Which, we got a good taste of earlier." Skyquake groaned. "My afterburners are still ringing."

"The Minicons are dug in deep all right," She smiled and looked at Skywarp. "But that just means you have to dig in deeper. Skywarp, I have a job for you."

XXXXXX

High Wire explained the situation to the rest of the Minicons and they all reacted different. Some non-aligned Minicons like the Land Military Team were a bit on the fence about it, while others like Songbird and Emulator were largely against being held prisoner on a moon. Overall, opinions were mixed, but not centered on one thing. Either way, they were still stuck in a cell inside a base being attacked from both fronts.

"Despite the abrupt abduction, I don't see anything wrong with this place." Liftor said.

"Are you kidding?" Grindor scoffed. "I don't want to be stuck on the moon waiting for the Cons to take pot shots at us. I want to be with our friends!"

"You'd rather be with humans than your own kind?" Cannon sneered. "You're more pathetic than I thought."

"That'd be more insulting if it didn't come from a mech who couldn't count past zero." Grindor growled. "Go such Search's cog oil or something."

"Can we even get out of here?" Sureshock asked, tossing a rock at the barrier. "If we can't, we'll never see Darren, Annie or Gina again."

"Let me get this straight, you want to be rescued? Why?" Shot demanded. "We're home, or as close to it as we'll likely get."

"Oh sure, this is really homey. The cozy cell, the warm glow of the security force fields," Jolt said sarcastically. "All they forget was the "Welcome" mat."

"You might wanna check that attitude, Holt!" Crack growled, but Jolt was hardly intimidated.

"Or you'll do what, soldier boy?"

"Knock it off!" Mugen yelled, pushing them apart. "This isn't the time or the plans you morons!"

"At ease, Crack." Shot said, placating his teammate.

"This is better than most human dramas." Search laughed.

"Don't you all see? We're with our kind now, making a stand against the Bulks who torched our world with their war." Liftor said. "For all of us here, the war's over."

"Maybe," Sparkplug muttered, but everyone heard him. They all turned to the yellow Minicon who hadn't said a word since they got back.

"Sparkplug?" Longarm said.

"Guys, I've been giving this a lot of thought." Sparkplug said. "If you're happy to be here, that's all fine and good. If not, well…that's the real question, isn't it? See, it's not whether we're better off here, safer, happier…it's that no one asked! Dualor, Drill Bit, Bonesaw, whoever else…we should quit griping and thank them and get on with our new lives. But I for one can't. Because they didn't ask, they just took. And that is exactly what we were running from in the first place!"

Unseen from prying eyes, a dark figure stood near the wall, hearing Sparkplug's impassioned speech. Indy of the Race team looked down in thought before quietly sneaking down the hall.

XXXXXX

"This is insane!" Skyfire shouted.

She flew through space with explosions trailing behind her. Heat seeking missiles tracked her down, but she used flares to throw them off course. Tomahawk was forced to fly low to the moon's surface to avoid the highly accurate turrets shooting at her.

The children were handling the automated guns with their combined firepower. Annie laid down the heavy assault on the weapons with her beam bazooka and shoulder cannons, while Gina cloaked her talos and got past their defenses to unleash her barrage of plasma blasts that wiped out an entire section of turrets. Darren was their main defender, using his telekinesis to either divert or completely block any attacks heading their way.

"How far do we have to go?" Annie asked.

"Just another mile or two." Tomahawk said. "I can see the outline of the base near the crater."

"Can you see the bloody artillery cannons, too?" Skyfire yelled. "Because they have plenty of those-ah!" She was knocked to the ground as a hole was blasted in her shoulder.

"Skyfire!" Gina screamed. A second later, her talos got hit in the leg by a laser blast that sent her spiraling out of her flight path and crashing into the ground.

"What's hitting us?" Darren shouted, raising a TK barrier to block the purple beam that was fired at him.

"It's a fusion cannon!" Tomahawk said, transforming to her natural form and crouching inside a crater. "We need to lay low to avoid getting hit. Those things have a lot of range on them."

Annie flew her Enyo over to Skyfire to help her up, but as soon as her foot touched the ground, it was engulfed in a might explosion that sent her and Skyfire apart, right into the firing lines of the photon cannons shooting at them. More land mines exploded around the pair and Gina could barely move as more mines threw her around like a rag doll.

"I so sick of their crap!" Darren growled and channeled his powers into the frame of his talos. Prometheus raised its hands and the ground before it broke apart, revealing almost a mile of undetonated mines. Darren forced his talos to send the mines flying at the fortress and they all slammed into the defensive wall that protected the base, causing them all to explode in a fiery display that lit up the lunar canyon like the fourth of July.

XXXXXX

"That red one is going to be a problem." Bonesaw said.

"What the hell did that thing just do?" Drill Bit gaped. "It just threw all our mines at us!"

"Focus, you idiot! Focus the fusion cannons on the red machine and keep forcing the Autobots back. We'll torch them all right here!" Dualor said. . Indy appeared in the doorway, losing his optical camouflage. "Indy, how are our guests?"

"They're doing…good." Indy lied. "They're coming around. Even the diehards like Sparkplug and Leader-1 are considering a change."

"Really?" Drill Bit hummed. "I'd have thought those two would be the most problematic."

Indy looked down. "Well…"

Suddenly the base began to shake as an explosion sounded in the distance, catching the Minicons off guard.

"What was that?" Indy asked.

"Indy, go check on our guests. Make sure the holding field is secure." Dualor turned to his team. "You two are coming with me to the control center. I want to know what the hell is going on!"

Dualor had no idea that Nightshade had Skywarp retrieve an energon driller from Terra. She had Knockout ground bridge both him and the machine into orbit, where he teleported it the rest of the way. He had to make multiple warps to get the machine to Luna, but when he got it there, the rest was history. Trying to take the base from the front was near impossible with all the heavy fire coming at them, so Nightshade figured using the drill to tunnel under the base was more effective. Thundercracker and Skyquake would maintain diversionary tactics to keep on the pressure, and as for Nightshade and Dreadwing…

"The whole place is coming down!" Jolt screamed.

"Hehe, no you fools," Leader-1 laughed. "It's our ride home!"

The rock wall behind them was smashed apart and Nightshade's avian head stomped into the hall. Her red eyes gleaming, she pecked at the barrier, her sharp beak breaking apart the shield generator and dispersing the force field. Songbird hopped around, positively elated at seeing her mistress again.

"Mistress!" Songbird cried out, flying onto the larger bird's shoulder.

"I missed you too, Songbird." Nightshade said, equally as glad to have her Minicon back. Then Leader-1 had to ruin the moment.

"You certainly took your damn time." Leader-1 complained. He yelped as Nightshade snapped her beak at him.

"Be glad I don't snap you in half for that!" She hissed. "Now, as for the rest of you…"

She grunted when she felt plasma blasts hit her back and swung her head around to see a team of Minicons attacking her with heavy weapons. They were members of the base's security team.

"You aren't taking anyone!" Glacier of the Adventure team shouted. "Iceberg, Dunerunner, torch her!"

"Little pests. Songbird, deal with them!" Nightshade looked at Leader-1. "Leader-1, take the others and find the nerve center of this place. Shut down their defenses."

"Yes, ma'am!"

"What? No, someone stop them!" Sparkplug charged at Leader-1, but someone pulled him back.

"Sparkplug, if she's made it in, then the base is lost." Indy whispered, dragging him and High Wire away. "You must get your friends out of here, now."

"But what about the rest of you?" High Wire asked.

"The two Autobots and humans you've spoken of are under attack as well, and are in danger." Indy told them.

"The children?!" Sureshock gasped.

"My team and I will lead you to them, and the rest can go to the escape pods down on the second level."

"Why are you helping us?" Grindor asked. "I thought you worked for Dualor."

"Not all of us are here strictly by choice. Dualor and his supporters have turned this community into a dictatorship. The weapons, forcing us into Heavy Metal's arsenal, it's too much." Indy sighed. "I will inform my allies to go to Terra with you. As far as I'm concerned, Dualor can rot."

"Then we better get going." Sparkplug said. He was glad to see that Dualor had no friends among the targetmaster gestalts. "High Wire, take your team and rendezvous with the children. Jolt I need you to lead the group to the shuttles."

"But what about you?" jolt asked.

"I'm going to find Dualor and end this nightmare." Sparkplug said, a determined expression on his face. "We won't be able to leave if he's still running the show, and our friends outside need help as well."

"Okay, stay safe, Sparkplug." High Wire said and faced his team. "Let's go!"

The Street Action Team ran down the corridor while Jolt led the Autobot-aligned Minicons to the escape pods. But Mugen remained behind.

"Mugen, what are you doing? I told you to-"

"I heard you, but you're going to need help against Dualor's goons and Leader-1's lackeys." She said. "You couldn't throw a punch worth a damn, anyway."

"But-oh forget it, come on!" Sparkplug said and ran down the hall with her towards the command center together.

XXXXXX

"Astroscope, what the frag it going on?" Dualor snarled. The space team leader looked at him in panic.

"A Decepticon just appeared in the holding cells down below. Glacier's team is engaging, but they're not doing much damage."

"How did she get past our defenses? We're shooting at them from every damn direction!" Bonesaw raged.

"She drilled into the rock." Payload said.

"Never mind that! What about our guests, what happened to them?"

"What do you think? They're free and heading towards the shuttle bay." Astroscope said. "And we need to do the same."

"You're not going anywhere!" Dualor growled. "Sparkplug and Leader-1 are going to be converging on this place and we need to hold them back!"

"But the place is coming apart!" Astroscope replied, but froze when Dualor pulled a blaster on him.

"We have invested too much in this fortress to abandon it. I am not running from those damn war mongers even if it kills me. So you are going to sit there and manage our defenses or I'll have Heavy Metal tear you in half!"

Astroscope looked like he wanted to run or go back to work, but seeing how frazzled Dualor was at hearing the news of his prisoners' freedom had sparked something in him. A certain fire that made him stare directly into Dualor's eyes and outright deny him.

"Go ahead and shoot," He said through clenched teeth. "At least I'd die helping Sparkplug, our real leader, than a militant like you!"

Dualor gnashed his teeth so hard he nearly chipped them. He shoved the blaster into Astroscope's head, fully intending to pull the trigger, when a disc fell at his team's feet and exploded, sending them all crashing into the walls. Through the smoke, Astroscope saw Leader-1, Search, Rook, Crosswise and Thunder entering the room.

"Rank amateurs," Leader-1 huffed, kicking Drill Bit aside. "I'll show you how to bring down the house!"

Astroscope was running on auto-pilot at this point, already having his team mobilize. "Payload, Skyblast, combine!"

Being gestalts, all it took was a single thought for them to combine into their weapon mode; a long barreled solar cannon called the Hydra Cannon. Astroscope formed the cannon's barrel, while Payload and Skyblast composed the other half. It was another powerful Minicon weapon capable of firing beams of charged solar or particle energy so concentrated that it could pierce the armor of a Bulk in one hit. But as they were designed to be wielded by Centurion or Heavy Metal, they couldn't keep themselves steady to aim properly. But that didn't stop them from taking a pot shot at Leader-1.

"Oh slag, scatter!"

The Mini-Cons jumped aside as an immensely hot beam shot past them. They were quick enough to escape instant death, but not Cannonbolt, who just got into the room after getting lost. The brutish Mini-Con didn't know what hit him as the beam punctured his chest and his body exploded. Leader-1 and his group had no time to react as the Space Team decombined and made a run for the secondary exit. Rook made to follow them, but Leader-1 stopped them.

"Don't bother, this is more important." Leader-1 said. "Thunder, get on that console."

Thunder did so without question. It only took a few minutes into the system and deactivate the weapons systems. "It's done."

"Nightshade, external and internal defenses are disabled. A dampener field is block all non-Decepticon comm-channels," Leader-1 reported. "The base is ours."

XXXXXX

"That red one is starting to piss us off." Heavy Metal growled. "Why aren't you shooting at it?"

Terradive pressed the trigger but the fusion cannons didn't respond. "Something's wrong with the fusion cannons. They're dead!"

"Hell, none of our weapons are working!" Thunderflame (Armada Thunderwing) said. "Even the missile pods and auto-guns won't move!"

"Well get them back up and fast. That thing is tearing up our barricades!" Gunbarrel said.

The Minicons had made a very big mistake in pissing off a telekinetic piloting a talos. Darren was at the front tearing up the landscape and throwing large piece s of rock at the southern wall. The automated defenses were useless against the long reach of Darren's telekinetic pull. Gunbarrel cursed when he saw Prometheus rip up the last of the missile pods and toss it at the blast shields. It was only thanks to those that they weren't drifting space as smoldering wrecks by now.

"How is he doing that?" He had never seen any of the humans' mecha do that from the pirated satellite signals he watched in the past.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" A deep voice said.

They spun around to see Centurion stomping through the door with the Hydra cannon in hand. Without hesitation, he fired the cannon and destroyed the pulse cannon turrets, blasting Thunderflame away. Heavy Metal gave an enraged shout and Gunbarrel transformed into his weapon mode, a six-chambered electrostatic cannon. The female gestalt grabbed him and fired six rounds of electrical blasts at Centurion. He ducked behind a pillar and fired the cannon again, this time destroying a generator that nearly incinerated Terradive and sent shrapnel stabbing into Heavy Metal's arm and leg.

"Die traitor!" Terradive transformed into his jet mode and fired a volley of laser blasts at Centurion's back. The gestalt growled and swung the cannon, using it as a bat to smack Terradive out of the air. Heavy Metal threw Gunbarrel aside and charged at Centurion, who released the Hydra Cannon and met her charge head on.

Heavy Metal slammed into Centurion, and they rolled across the floor punching and kicking each other. She kicked him off and threw a punch at his face, but he caught her fist and twisted her arm around, throwing her off her feet. Centurion leapt up and wrapped his legs around her torso before twisting his body around, throwing her to the ground. He ran at her, but she caught him with an uppercut that knocking him into the remains of the gun turrets.

Centurion growled and grabbed a metal beam, slamming it into Heavy Metal's leg before spinning around and hitting her in the back of her head. On the other side of the room, the Space Team were working on lowering the blast shields, though they had other things to worry about.

"Incoming!" Astroscope shouted, seeing a giant rock flying right at them.

They jumped for cover as the rock smashed right through the blast shield, tearing through the window and destroying the last turret. Debris flew everywhere, and Heavy Metal was hit by a boulder that almost got Centurion as well.

"Centurion!" Darren called out upon seeing his friend.

Centurion smiled and waved at him. "Darren!"

As Darren reunited with the Minicons, Thundercracker saw him and went in for the kill. "Dreadwing, I've spotted one of the humans! They're at the-"

"Sneak attack!" Skyfire appeared over Thundercracker and fired a couple of particle blasts into his back. Thundercracker transformed and crashed inside a crater, slamming head first into the dense lunar rock.

"Centurion, where are the others?" Annie asked.

"They're heading toward the escape pods, but Sparkplug and Mugen are heading to the control room."

"I get the girls to regroup with us to protect those escape pods when they launch." Darren said and looked to the Space Team. "You three are welcome to come with us. We'll get you to Terra safely."

"Thank you." Astroscope said gratefully and shared a smile with his teammates. For the first time since coming to this moon, he felt happy.

XXXXXX

Nightshade stomped through the halls of the fortress in her beast mode, since she was already too big to traverse these low hanging halls in her bipedal form. She sent Songbird ahead to find the shuttle bay before the Minicons had a chance to leave. That was when she got the message.

" _Nightshade, Thundercracker reported two Autobots and three talos at the southern perimeter of the fortress."_ Dreadwing said. _"We're engaging them now."_

"Leader-1, activate the defenses at the southern wall and target the Autobots." She ordered. But instead of a reply, multiple panels on the walls slid open to reveal dozens of photon emitters, which started shooting at Nightshade. "Gah! Leader-1, what the hell are you doing?!"

In the control room, Mugen smirked as she had the base's defense grid target the Decepticons. "Choke on that bitch."

Behind her, the Race team was fighting the Mini-Cons, while Sparkplug engaged Leader-1 in a close quarters knife fight. The two mechs slashed at each other, on top of throwing kicks and punches. All the while, they glared and spat insults at each other.

"You never quit when you're ahead, do you, Sparky?" Leader-1 snarled, blocking a kick from Sparkplug. "I wreck Dualor's place, and you're still getting in my way!"

"It's because you're a Decepticon! Why the hell do you think I'm fight you?" Sparkplug growled.

Mugen jumped into the fray and kicked Leader-1 in the face. "As much as I would like to watch you two play Optimus and Megatron, we need to bounce before Nightshade comes hunting for us!"

They ran for the exit, but Sparkplug was hit by two explosive shells that caught him in the chest and shoulder. Mugen turned and saw Dualor pulling himself up from his tank mode, slinking over to the control panel.

"Traitors…all of you," He panted, pointing his blaster at the console. "This is all because you fools refused to listen to me. I risked everything to free us, and this is how you repay me?!"

"Dualor, stop! Don't do it!" Indy shouted.

"No! I won't go back to being a slave! We'll all die here before we become tools of the Autobots and Decepticons!" Dualor shouted before shooting at the console, destroying it and short-circuiting the system.

In the sub-level, the photon emitters stopped shooting at Nightshade, and the moderately wounded femme glared bloody murder at the security cameras. With a savage cry that would put a Bald Eagle to shame, she fired missiles from her wings into the ceiling and smashed her large body through the rock and metal to reach the control room.

"Mugen, take Sparkplug and go!" Indy said, handing the wounded mech to her.

"But what about you three?"

"We'll be fine." Downshift said, and handed her a data-slug. "Give that to Sparkplug. It's the coordinates for the four stasis panels that we located. Now go!"

Mugen hesitated, but she thanked them and ran to the exit with Sparkplug. Indy bade them goodbye and turned to Dualor.

"Now, as for you, Dualor…" Indy blinked when he saw that the Destruction team was gone. "Where are they?"

"Gone, they hauled ass when your backs were turned." Leader-1 laughed. "Oh, you three are so screwed when Nightshade gets here. You should've ran when you had the chance."

"Maybe, but you'll be sharing the pain with us." Indy said.

Leader-1 blinked at him. "I'm sorry, what?"

"As far as Nightshade's concerned, you were the only one operating the base's defenses. And from the look on her face, I think she still believes you had control over the weapons systems the whole time she was being fired upon." Leader-1's look of complete terror set Indy's Spark at ease. "I'd say that you're fragged right along with us."

Suddenly the computer was destroyed and the wall smashed in by a large, black raven's head that immediately sought out Leader-1 form among the scattered Minicons. Leader-1 fell back on his haunches and gulped.

"Oh scrap." He said as Nightshade snapped her sharp beak at him.

XXXXXX

Skyfire, Tomahawk and the children stood outside the base as they watched the escape pods launch from their hidden launch pads and fly towards Terra. Centurion sat on Prometheus's shoulder while the Space Team sat in Skyfire and Tomahawk's alt modes.

"The pods will take the Minicons to a preprogrammed destination." Payload said. "We were lucky that you guys were able to hold the Cons back long enough for them to reach terminal velocity."

"We're here to get our friends back, and that's exactly what we've accomplished." Annie said. "Not to say that wasn't a doozy though."

"Let's get back to Terra." Tomahawk said. "I'm sure Prime will want to know of our success."

"Do you have room for two more?"

Mugen appeared in a hole in the wall carrying Sparkplug on her shoulder. Darren blinked at them before smiling.

"There's always a place for friends, Mugen."

XXXXXX

Down in the deserts of Zona Arida, the Destruction Team exited their escape shuttle, still seething from their defeat and losing the fortress they worked so hard to build.

"All those stellar cycles of planning, weaponizing, defending, and they all destroyed in on fragging night!" Dualor yelled. "I should've killed Sparkplug when I had the chance. And Thunder, Rook and Crosswise as well! Those bastards destroyed everything we've built!"

"What do we do now?" Drill Bit asked. He slumped against the shuttle. "We don't have a base or resources and I doubt the other Minicons will be so accepting of us now."

"I don't care what we have to do," Dualor sneered, rage rolling off him in waves. "I'll kill the Autobots, the Decepticons and those traitors! We will annihilate them to the last bot!"

His angry tirade was cut short as a dozen armored vehicles, and mecha tank-type talos suddenly appeared and surrounded the crater. Soldiers exited the vehicles and pointed their guns at the Minicons with the talos. Dualor was ready to signal his team to attack when a large, black and red transport VTOL aircraft hovered to the ground and the landing hatch opened up. A tall, slender human walked out of the aircraft and walked towards the crater, smiling down at the Minicons.

"More humans." Bonesaw grumbled.

Dualor pointed his blaster at the man. "Don't think I won't shoot you, human! We may be weak, but we can still fight!"

"Oh, I don't want to fight, Minicon. I just want to talk."

Dualor narrowed his eyes. "About what?"

"An opportunity," Pieces of the Zodiac grinned. "To get your revenge on our shared enemies."


	26. Underground

Chapter 26-Underground

With their mission to Luna over, the Autobot/human rescue team returned to Terra via the ground bridge with some of the Minicons in tow. Optimus and the other Autobots eagerly awaited the return of their friends, and gave them a big welcome as they left the ground bridge portal. Ratchet quickly rushed Sparkplug to the med bay as the team was briefed on what happened in space.

"Thank Primus you're alright." Arcee breathed. "When we lost contact with you, we thought the worst."

"Oh we were fine, Cee. It's just the Minicons up there were better prepared than we thought. They had a fortress built on the dark side of the moon made from what was left of the Exodus." Skyfire said. "Blood imps armed the place to the teeth."

Optimus knelt down to speak to the Space Team. "Thank you for helping our friends. You've given them a chance in an otherwise dire situation."

"We're happy to help, Prime. But…Indy and some others were still trapped in the base when Nightshade busted through." Astroscope frowned at the thought of the Race team and those few stragglers falling into the Decepticons' clutches. "And I'm sure Breakage and Gunbarrel's teams were captured as well."

"Not to mention those escape pods should've landed by now." Payload said. "Our friends are scattered across the world."

"I can lead the team on a retrieval mission, Prime." Prowl said. "You should focus on the info Astroscope gave us."

"Yes," Optimus nodded. "We must locate the four stasis panels before Megatron's forces have a chance to regroup. Once he learns of this information, he will not waste any time in mobilizing."

XXXXXX

"Very good, Nightshade." Megatron praised his lieutenant as he glanced at the caged Minicons. Indy glared right back at him, but didn't say anything to anger the mech who could crush him in his fingers. There were a few others that were stuck with him too, namely Gunbarrel, Terradive and Thunderflame. "You've certainly outdone yourselves, Seekers. Well done."

"Thank you, lord Megatron." Dreadwing said humbly.

"Rumble, Frenzy, take them to the holding cells and outfit them with tags. Don't let any of them out of your sight." Megatron ordered. The cassette twins nodded and took the cage back to the med lab for the operation. With that done, it was time for them to get down to business. "Nightshade, what's the situation with the Autobots?"

"The Autobots have divided their forces to recover the escape pods that were launched from the Luna fortress. Which gives us an opportunity to acquire the four panels the Minicons had located here on Terra." She said. She nodded at Thundercracker, who brought up a map of the seven continents. "I already have the computers searching for the coordinates of these panels as we speak."

"Good, Prime will be splitting up his forces to retrieve both the pods and the panels, thus spreading our opposition thin." Megatron said, grinning. "We must do the same to maintain our advantage."

Knockout, who was standing at the back of the group, cleared his throat and pushed his way to the front. "Lord Megatron, I am ready for such a mission." He said pompously. "Barricade and I have enjoyed previous victories together and in his memory, I plan to do the same."

Megatron scowled and stomped up to Knockout, his bulk dwarfing the medic's modest size as he glared down at the mech. "Need I remind you that this is a mission of great importance, not one of your racing excursions? Act quickly! Operate with a surgeon's skill! Do you understand, Knockout?"

Knockout gave a shaky nod. "E-explicitly, my lord."

Now, seeing as you're vastly outnumbered, I am sending Demolishor with you, along with Rumble and Frenzy for support."

"E-excuse me?" Knockout gaped. He glanced at Rumble, who grinned nastily at him. The shorter mech clapped him on the back with his massive pile driver hand, making Knockout stumble forward.

"Glad to serve alongside ya, pretty boy!" Rumble cackled.

"Yeah, we're gonna make sure the Autobots don't put a dent in that pretty finish of yours!" Frenzy smirked.

"Primus help me." Knockout groaned.

XXXXXX

"I know this is obvious, Prime, but aren't we spreading our forces a bit thin here?" Skyfire said. "We don't have enough Bots watching the house."

"If they haven't already." Annie muttered, taking a deep swig of her water.

"With most of our team recovering the escape pods, it's up to us to secure the four panels." Optimus turned to the Autobots and humans present. "We will divide into teams. The first coordinates are in Europa, within the Attilan Province near the Elladas Republic."

"I know where that is!" Penny and Kevin ran into the room, looking like they just woke up, which they probably have. They rushed to the Ark the first chance they got upon hearing that Tracer was among those taken. "It's an independent nation that split from Elladas in the 1980s after a family of espers took over the area and made it into their own little kingdom."

"Will we met any resistance there?" Rodimus asked. "I heard what happened to Ironhide when he fought an esper and I don't want to become number on their scorecard."

"No, Karaba doesn't bother esper-dominated lands, and Attilan doesn't convene with terrorists, but I'd be careful anyway. Make too much noise and they'll come hunting you with guns and powers."

"Yet another volatile hot spot," Ratchet sighed. "These things are growing every day."

"Well, this just means that you'll have to be flexible, Hot Rod." Moonracer smiled. "We can handle this no problem!"

"Don't get too cocky, Moon," Kevin warned. "Attilan is a small province, and their royal army patrols every nook and cranny of their territory. The chances of them running into two brawling bots is very high."

"Which means that you'll need a guide to keep you out of trouble." Penny smiled. "My dad took me on vacation there two years ago, and the panel's located in a part of the country that I used to go diving at. We can help you."

"Rodimus, Moonracer, take Kevin and Penny to Attilan." Optimus said. "Watch yourselves and each other. The Decepticons might already be at the location."

"You got it, Optimus!" Rodimus saluted. "Come on, guys. Let's roll out!"

"Ugh, you have no right to say that, Hot Rod." Moonracer rolled her eyes.

"Stop calling me that!"

XXXXXX

The coordinates led the team to a beach near Attilan's coastal region. Kevin and Penny stood on the beach looking out at the sea, where a small fishing village sat on the other side. The air was damp and smelled of salty sea water, rough waves crashed against the rocks around the cove, spraying mist everywhere. Behind them was a river leading from the beach into a cove where a small cave sat.

Penny took a deep breath of the cool, morning air and smiled. "I forgot who wonderful the weather was here. Attilan always had the best weather cycles."

"Have you been around this area before?" Moonracer asked.

"Once, when I had an interest in collecting seashells and trying to find old shipwrecks that haven't been found yet." She said and pointed to the mainland. "My dad and I would explore the province for old Elladan temples, and act like we were discovering some ancient ruin or something. Funny thing about that is that we actually did end up finding some undiscovered temples and relics."

Penny almost lost herself in those fond memories-back when her dad actually had time for her and wasn't so consumed with her work. When he would be the one to tuck her in at night and not her aunt. Back then, he encouraged her interest in archaeology and world history, and despite his lack of a presence in her life, she never forgot the influence he had on her future. If only he knew of the adventures she was having now. She shook herself from her reverie and looked at her friends. "I'm sorry, let's start the mission."

Moonracer gave her a little smile and took out her scanner. As soon as she got a read on the panel's signal, she and Rodimus transformed and drove the kids along the perimeter of the cover, returning to robot mode and carrying the children along the slippery rocks once solid ground sunk into the water. Things were peaceful enough, and Kevin and Penny took the time to gaze at the beautiful cove they found themselves in, but they also remained alert. The Decepticons had a decent head start on them and could be waiting to stage an ambush.

After hopping on eroded rocks sticking out of the water, they made it to the cave, which fortunately had solid ground for them to walk on. Rodimus got out of the water and gave the cave a wary look.

"We're not really going in there, are we?" He asked.

"The scanner says the panel is right inside." Kevin said, holding up his little scanner device. He noted the grimace on Rodimus's face. "Don't tell me you're afraid of caves, Hot Rod."

"It's not caves I'm worried about, it's what's inside them. I heard Jazz's horror stories about this planet's animal life." Rodimus said. "And don't call me Hot Rod, damn it!"

"Terra's fauna aren't nearly as bad as Jazz makes it out to be." Moonracer said as she walked past him. "You have nothing to worry about."

The two Autobots entered the cave first, with the children following close behind. The cave was large enough to accommodate their size, which was fortunate. As they walked deeper into the cave, it got darker, and Rodimus switched on his lights to light up their way. Kevin could hear his breathing increase slightly, and he looked around at the cave walls.

'They look like ribs.' He thought and glanced up at the stalactites. 'And those are teeth. Crap, I need to stop before I have a panic attack.'

"You doing okay there, Kevin?" Penny asked. "You're looking a bit stressed."

"I'm doing fine. It's…just a bit stuffy in here, that's all." Kevin gave her a grin. "So, um, how far is the panel?"

"Not a clue," Moonracer replied. "I have no idea where the thing is and this place is like a maze."

Soon they came upon a fork in the tunnel. One path looked even more dark and wet, while the other was mostly dry and had tiny pieces of minerals sprouting from the walls.

"Which way now?" Kevin asked.

They got their answer in the form of a faint, echoing high pitched screech sounding throughout the cave. Rodimus and Moonracer tuned their audio receptors to hear the sound properly.

"What is that?" Penny asked. "An animal?"

"No animal on Terra can make a sound like that." Kevin said. And he knew that, he watched a lot of National Geographic as a kid.

"That's no animal," Moonracer said. "That's a machine…a driller!"

"Decepticons!" Rodimus grinned and transformed to car mode. "Let's get moving, Moon."

"Whoa there, Roddy, let's not jump into the frying pan head first, okay?" Kevin said. "We don't even know where they are. The echoes are throwing my sense of direction off."

Penny hummed. "Maybe we should split up."

"Huh? No way, that's too risky." Moonracer said, but the dry look Penny gave her made her pout.

"We don't have a choice, Moonracer. We need to find the Cons before they high tail it with the panel." She said, and smiled. "Don't worry, Kevin and I can take care of ourselves. We came prepared."

"I don't think a crossbow and arrows are gonna scare the Cons off, Penny." Rodimus pointed out.

"You haven't seen them in action." She smirked. "Let's go, Kevin. We're moving."

Penny was already walking down the dark left path, with Kevin chasing after her, giving the Autobots a 'What can I do?' shrug. Rodimus and Moonracer traded glances.

"I'm not getting in trouble if they get hurt." He told her.

"They're smart kids, Rodimus. They know when to run when things get hot." She said and walked down the right path. Rodimus shook his head and followed her, hoping this didn't come back to bite them in the aft.

XXXXXX

Kevin and Penny traversed the dark tunnel by themselves, trying to follow the faint screeching further down the cave. Kevin was starting to regret going it alone with Penny. Was it just him or did the tunnel feel smaller?"

"I think we went down the wrong tunnel." He said after a tense silence.

"No, we didn't. I explored these caves with my dad when I was little. I remember every nook and cranny of this cave-oh, that's new!" She chirped.

Penny ran over to a piece of crystal sticking out of the water and quickly took out her laser scalpel (given to her by Roll Bar for recreational purposes only) and sawed off a fragment to stuff into her bag.

"We're not on a scavenger hunt, Penny."

"I know, but I don't know when I'll be back to this place again. I just want something to remember our missions by." She said and turned to Kevin with a smile, which turned into a frown when she noticed his declining state. "Kevin? You don't look so good."

"Just a little on edge. I…don't like going into dark places like this." Kevin admitted, taking deep breaths to keep himself from firing off an energy beam in his stressed state.

"Kevin," Penny slowly walked up to him. "Are you…claustrophobic?"

Kevin didn't want to say it, but Penny knew she hit the nail on the head. The normally confident esper glanced away at the moist cave walls, looking ashamed. "A little, I just have a slight aversion to being in caves or just underground in general." He said. "Why do you think I don't go on those hiking trips of yours?"

"Oh Kevin, if you were claustrophobic, why didn't you say anything?" Penny frowned, giving him that all too familiar scolding look he was used to. "I wouldn't have dragged you in here if it affected you that much."

"But you wanted to go, and I just couldn't let you go it alone with the Bots. And…I didn't want you being held back by me." Kevin replied. "I told you, it's not serious. I can handle it."

"Your health is more important than what I want, Kevin. Don't give yourself a panic attack just to please me." She took his hand in hers. "That's worse than holding me back."

Kevin smiled. "You make me sound like a try-hard boyfriend."

"Of course you are!" Penny giggled. A second later, a blush formed on her face. "A try hard, I mean. Not the boyfriend part. Just to be clear. Um," Penny bit her lip and marched down the tunnel. "L-let's go! We have work to do!"

Kevin smiled and followed her, now feeling slightly more at ease. They walked for a few more minutes, before they heard the loud splashes of another set of feet further down the tunnel…which were getting louder.

"I thought you said people rarely come down here!" Kevin whispered.

"I said rarely, not never." Penny hissed.

"Get behind me."

Kevin got in front of Penny and charged his arms up with energy, pressing his back against the wet wall. He edged himself closer to the corner at the end of the tunnel and quickly jumped out just as a red-haired woman did the same on the other side, pointing a gun at him. It was only thanks to their initial shock that no one got hurt.

"Agent Keller?" Kevin blinked. The woman, Cole Keller, stared at Kevin in shock.

"You're one of those kids from the forest." She whispered.

Then Agent Veronica Howard appeared around the corner with Agent Sean McCurie, and things went downhill from there.

XXXXXX

Knockout impatiently tapped his foot on the wet ground repeatedly as he watched Demolishor blast apart the tunnel wall in his tank mode. It was boring watching the mech work, and he had no idea where Rumble and Frenzy were. The twins were somehow even more difficult to live with after Soundwave went MIA, and Knockout hooped that the universe would do him a favor and had them fall down a deep pit or something.

"Could you hurry up already?" Knockout grumbled. "I'm tired of standing around in this god forsaken dump. The salty air is tarnishing my undercarriage."

Demolishor's tank cannon swerved around to face Knockout. "I'm not your slave, Knockout, and listening to you complain is the last thing I need right now."

"What, are you going to cry like a protoform? At least Barricade took my ribbing with some dignity." Knockout huffed.

"Why don't you drill if you think you can do a better job?"

"I would, but my finely sculpted hands aren't as large and brutish as yours!"

Not too far from the arguing Cons, Rodimus and Moonracer watched them from behind a stalagmite. Rodimus pointed his arm blasters at Demolishor, but Moonracer placed a hand on his arm, shaking her head.

"I have a clear shot. I can take them both out easy." Rodimus whispered.

"Let them dig the panel out for us. It'll save us some time." Moonracer replied and rested her sniper rifle on the rocks. "Sniper 101: Wait for the target to come to you, not the other way around."

Rodimus wisely kept his mouth shut and followed her advice. Moonracer was scarily accurate with that rifle of hers, and was an even better shot than Tomahawk. Moonracer may have acted like a human teenage girl most of the time, but in battle, she was dangerous. It was a bit creepy at how she could just switch mindsets on a dime, but war changed people like that, making even the sweetest bot into a war machine.

After another minute of insulting each other's configurations (or in Knockout's case; insulting his partner's lack of a spouse), Demolishor finally got back to work, firing a few more pulse blasts into the rock before he finally reached what they came for.

"Stop!" Knockout said. "We found it!"

Demolishor transformed and looked inside the hole he made. Deep side the wall, the still dormant panel was resting inside a tiny cubby of stone where it lay untouched for millions of years. Knockout pushed Demolishor aside and grinned at their quarry.

"Glorious." Knockout reached inside and tried to pull it out, only to find that it was stuck tight. He grunted as he tried using his legs as leverage to push against the rock to free the panel, but it didn't even budge. "Don't try to fight it, you little bastard! Just let go!"

Demolishor shook his head at the pitiful sight. "Do you want me to-"

"No! This is my prize!" He yelled. "It's mine to take!"

"Whatever you say."

Moonracer winked at Rodimus and pointed her rifle at the two Cons. Plugging two wires from her rifle into the back of her head, she linked her laser scope to her optic sensors, maximizing her accuracy drastically. It might not be much, but it added to her already prodigal skill. She lined up her aim with Knockout's arms, planning to shoot both arms off in one shot. Just as her finger pulled the trigger, Rodimus yanked her back.

"Hey, what's the-" She saw the rock she was resting on get pulverized by Rumble from a pile-driver dive on her position. Frenzy also fell on them, shoving his drill hands at the red mech's head, but Rodimus kicked him aside.

"There goes out element of surprise." Rodimus said. "I got the terrible twos. You go-"

"I know!" Moonracer grabbed her rifle and ran for the Cons, who were already pointing their weapons at her.

"What are you waiting for? Shoot her!" Knockout yelled.

Demolishor's right arm changed into a laser cannon and he shot at her. Moonracer dodged his blasts and slid across the ground on her knees, shooting her rifle at his leg, staggering him. Demolishor swung at her, punching her into the wall, but she fired another round into his face, engulfing his head in a fiery burst that blinded him. As he stumbled back, she shifted her rifle into its spear configuration and slashed him across the chest. A sharp pain in her right arm made her rolled backwards to avoid another swipe from Knockout's saw.

"You have wonderful features, my dear." Knockout said flamboyantly. . "But perhaps you'd be interested in a make-over? A little enhancement, perhaps?"

He swung his saw blade at her, but she rolled to the side and punched him in the jaw. Knockout barely avoided her spear as it fell on him, and hissed as a piece of his arm kibble was sliced off.

"Sorry, I don't do surgery." Moonracer smirked. "I'm all natural."

"Shame. I would've loved to open you up to see if you were just as beautiful on the inside." He growled.

"Not on a first date!"

Moonracer leapt at Knockout and spun her weapon around her body. Knockout slashed at her, but only managed to land a thin cut on her thigh before he found the barrel of her rifle in his face. He was able to move his head just enough avoid the bullet that sailed over his shoulder. She slammed her knee into his face and bashed his cranium with the barrel of her rifle, sending him to the ground.

Rodimus was having his own share of the fun with the twins. He grunted as a sonic scream from Frenzy hit him in the chest and blasted him into a boulder. Rumble leapt at him, but Rodimus ducked under the mech's punch so that he slammed face first into the stone pillar behind him. Rumble hit the pillar with such force that he destroyed it, causing rocks to rain down on them. Rodimus used this chance to blast Rumble in the chest and knock him into the pile of rubble.

"And stay down!" He yelled. Then he felt an intense pain in his right leg. "Ow!"

He saw Frenzy digging into his leg with one of his drills. Frenzy grinned up at him and released a close range scream that blew Rodimus off his feet and into the stalactites on the ceiling before he hit the ground.

"I hate these little slagheaps." Rodimus grumbled, trying to shake the ringing from his head.

Moonracer stepped over a dazed Knockout and over to the hole with the panel inside. She reached in to grab it, struggling a bit as the panel was stuck really tight in the small hole.

"For Pete's sake, don't do this to me." Moonracer grunted.

A pulse blast slammed into her, blasting her to the ground in a daze as bits of her armor flew off her arm. Demolishor stomped towards her, looking not too happy.

"That Minicon is Decepticon property, Autobot," He growled. "Stand aside or be reduced to slag."

XXXXXX

Penny had no idea what was going on, but she knew it had Kevin on edge. He was already stressed out from being in the cave and now they ran into some humans near a cybertronian hot zone that apparently knew him.

"What are three secret agents doing in down here?" Kevin asked, not dousing the flames on his arms.

"That's a question we should be asking." Cole said, finger near, but not on, the trigger. She didn't like pulling a gun on a child, but she was dealing with an esper child who wasn't on very good terms with Skywatch after what happened last time. What you kids doing down this deep in the caves?"

"Exploring, duh." Penny frowned. She kept her eye on the other agent and the one with the glasses. She watched enough government documentaries on TV to know not to let her guard down just because they looked calm and level-headed. "This place is a pretty sweet vacation spot if you didn't know."

"That's a pretty shallow explanation for you two being here without adult supervision." Sean said dryly. He was tensed for any surprise attacks, but he didn't reach for his weapon so far.

"The same goes for you and your slave master." Kevin replied. "Now where's your boss, Frankel? I'm sure that pointy bastard isn't far behind."

"He's dead," Cole said, her face showing not the slightest bit of remorse. "Your alien buddies killed him and a lot of other people, too. Good people."

"Soundwave isn't our buddy!" Kevin growled, then realized his mistake. "Shit!"

"You know its name?" Veronica whispered, slowly stepping forward. "You know more about them than you let on, about the aliens hiding on Terra."

Kevin wanted to dent it, call her crazy, but she was already aware that he was hiding the truth. Not to mention she knew about the cybertronian war to some extent. This was a worst case scenario. "It would seem you know about them too."

"You have no idea." Sean chuckled. Cole sent him a look to shut up.

"All right, what the hell is going on?" Penny glared at the adults. "Kevin, who are these guys and how do you know them?"

"These are the government agents that snagged Darren's group along with me after we stumbled onto their front lawn, which was poorly concealed by the way," Kevin glared at Cole. "Your boss threatened us if we didn't tell about these so-called NBEs."

"Frankel was one of our loser cannons in our organization who let his status go beyond mission parameters. I assure you, not all of us are like that." Veronica said.

"Tell that to Jackson." Sean muttered.

"Who's us?" Kevin asked.

"That's classified." Cole said. "What do you know about the NBEs?"

"That's classified." Penny replied, grinning at Cole's scowl.

"This isn't getting us anywhere." Rebecca sighed and signaled Cole to lower her gun. "Let's try this approach. My name is Veronica Howard, xenobiologist of the government affiliated black ops agency called Skywatch. These are my close associates, Agent Cole Keller and Sean McCourie."

"Whoa, doc!"

"Howard, what the hell do you think you're doing?" Cole hissed. "Don't spit out our secrets to civilians!"

"They clearly know more about the NBEs that we do, Cole. A lot more." She said. "I can't tell you everything, but I can say that we came here investigating possible signs of alien activity in the area, namely sightings of NBEs fighting. We didn't expect to find much, but us meeting was a little quirk of fate."

Kevin and Penny weren't expecting her to suddenly blurt out her identity or her reasons for coming here. She threw them off with her brutal honesty, and they knew that she was making a huge gamble telling them this, and her words seemed sincere enough for Kevin to lower his guard a bit.

"I'm not asking you as an agent of some government agency, but as a scientist trying to stop more lives from being lost to these beings." Veronica pleaded. "What is your connection to these aliens? Are they here to invade Terra, or is there something more that we're missing? What are we dealing with here?"

Kevin took a long, hard look at her. Seeing that at least Veronica was at least appealing to him for a peaceful solution, he lowered his arms. While he won't protect them, he wasn't going to just spill the beans on the whole thing.

"All I can tell you is that if you really do know about these NBEs, as you call them, then you need to know that not all of them are bad." He told them. "Don't trust everything you see until you know all the facts."

"What the hell does that mean?" Cole asked. "Come on, kid, just give us a straight answer."

"That's all you're getting from me. I'm not going to sell out my friends."

Veronica wanted to ask more questions, about the children back at the base, the aliens, and what their relationship with them was. She knew they at least made contact with these robotic aliens, so they probably were more involved in this than she thought. She never got the chance, however, as the cave trembled, dislodging some rocks.

What's going on?" Sean asked.

"No idea, but I don't think it's good." Cole said, drawing her gun again.

The cave wall to their right suddenly exploded, sending large rocks flying at them. Kevin and Penny jumped back to avoid the worst of it, but Cole had a sharp stone hit her right shoulder as she dived to the ground. Sean and Veronica pulled her to safety from the chaos. The scientist looked up and gaped at the magnificent sight before her.

Rodimus and Demolishor were fighting in the water, their punches echoing like thunder that made the humans' teeth rattle. Kevin and Penny scrambled back towards the others when Rodimus took a punch to the chin and crashed back to the opposing wall. Veronica and Sean watched the battle with awestruck gazes.

"Those are a lot bigger than the ones we've seen." Sean muttered,

"I take it those are the bad aliens you hinted at?" Veronica asked Kevin.

"See those symbols on their bodies? Red is friendly, purple is-move!" Kevin pushed her out of the way as a large red arm punched the spot they were just in. The Decepticon Knockout grinned at the humans as he stomped towards them.

"Looks like I missed," He said, shifting his right hand into a drill. "A damn shame for you little ones."

Sean fired his gun, but the bullets bounced harmlessly off Knockout's metal skin. The medic looked anything but impressed at the weak defense. "Really, just shoot bullets at someone made of metal. You'd have a better chance at fighting a tank with your bare hands."

His mirth was cut short when a rocket hit him in the face, swallowing his head in a small explosion. The others turned to see Cole limping towards them, blood leaking from a cut on her temple. She was carrying a smoking rocket launcher on her unwounded shoulder.

"How's that you stupid tin can!" She snarled.

"You little animal!" Knockout shoved his drill arm at the humans, but Moonracer barreled into him, and they both crashed to the ground.

"Kevin, Penny, get the panel!" Moonracer shouted. "It's somewhere in here!"

"Where?" Penny asked.

"In the water!"

"That's helpful." Penny grumbled and looked at the water flooding in. It was shallow enough to actually see through, but no panel was anywhere near them.

"Hold up, you know that thing?" Sean asked, surprised. He really wasn't expecting this when he woke up in the morning.

"Not now, Sean, we've got other problems." Cole pointed at the 11 foot tall twins that were stalking towards them with sadistic grins on their faces.

"Look at that, bro. Two Autobrats and those little flesh bags from that base we torched." Frenzy said.

"Didn't we kill 'em all?" Rumble asked.

"Thought we did, but I guess we missed some." Frenzy gnashed his drills together, generating orange sparks that eerily reflected off his face. "Let's fix that."

XXXXXX

"Have a drink!" Rodimus shoved Demolishor's head into a deep pool and held it there. Seeing as they couldn't breath, the action was entirely useless on the Con, but for Rodimus, it was just adding injury to insult.

Demolishor flailed his arms, but Rodimus was practically sitting on his back and he had no leverage. Going by touch alone, he grabbed a handful of wet dirt and threw it into the mech's face, making him jerk back in surprise. Demolishor pushed off the ground and threw the Autobot off him, transforming in one smooth movement.

"That was a dirty trick." Rodimus growled, wiping the mud from his eyes.

"We invented the concept, you pencil pushing poser!" Demolishor fired a pulse blast at Rodimus, forcing the Autobot to take cover.

"You must have me mixed up with Prowl!" Rodimus waited for a lull in Demolishor's assault, and charged at him. Rodimus took a few hits to his arms and chest, but he didn't slow down in his charge. Grabbing hold of the transformed Con, Rodimus showed Demolishor exactly why he was nicknamed "Hot Rod".

Superheating his frame to the point of causing the air around him to combust, Rodimus engulfed Demolishor in a huge burst of flames like a walking methane explosion. The Con screamed as he was bathed in intense flames that slightly melted his armor and tried to drive away, but Rodimus held onto him fast. Rodimus kept this up until Demolishor finally transformed to robot mode and pushed him away. Every circuit and pain receptor in his body screamed in agony and Demolishor passed out from the pain of his burns, falling over. Rodimus fell to his knees, panting to cool his systems.

"Stay crispy, Demolishor." Rodimus laughed weakly and fell onto his back.

XXXXXX

Veronica never thought that all her hard work at Skywatch would actually pay off in seeing real life aliens, just like the ones they dug up in Eureka. Their power was tremendous, a far cry from the animalistic mechanoids Agent Red's group had acquired from Mount St. Helens. What was more amazing, though, was how these children were actually fighting off the two robots that massacred the Skywatch base back in Oregon.

Kevin's energy bursts were devastating enough to push the twins back, while Penny's surprisingly effective crossbow bolts would explode against their face and chests. Rumble especially took the brunt of her assault and was already riddled with burns.

"This is stupid! These brats shouldn't be able to fight us!" Rumble growled. "They weren't this hard to kill before!"

kill before!"

"Maybe you shoulder sing to them," Frenzy quipped. "Primus knows your voice can raise the dead. Maybe it can do the opposite."

Rumble gave him an obscene hand gesture. "Go frag yourse-gah!" He was hit in the chest by another rocket and fell into the water. Cole wiped the blood from her eyes and spat at him.

"That was for my friends you asshole!" Cole hissed.

"Bro! You little bitch!" Frenzy released his sonic scream at Cole. Sean pushed her down so that the sonic wave flew over them and into the wall, smashing through the thick rock with deadly precision. Cole grunted as she hit her elbow on something.

"Ow! What the…hell?" Cole glanced down on what she fell on and saw a strange blue and green hexagonal panel. It was the stasis panel that was dislodged when Rodimus and Demolishor crashed through the tunnel walls. Penny saw her pick it up and ran over to her.

"You found it!" Penny exclaimed.

"Found what?" Cole asked. She jumped when Penny snatched the panel from her. "Hey!"

"Don't touch things that don't belong to you!" Penny scolded. Suddenly Kevin crashed into the water next to them. "Kevin!"

"Ugh," Kevin groaned. He had a bloodied gash on his forehead. Veronica quickly looked him over, getting some bandages to fix the wound.

"He's alright, but he has a nasty bump on this noggin." Sean said. "We need to get him out of here."

"You filthy bloodbags aren't going anywhere!" Frenzy snarled, pointing a blaster at them. Sean and Cole aimed their own guns at him, prompting a laugh from the red Con. "Like your little peashooters can do any damage to me."

"Then how about this?"

Frenzy only had time to see Moonracer pointing her rifle at him, and could do nothing as she fired a blast that swallowed his body and sent him flying a few feet away, hitting the wet, soggy ground as a smoking wreck.

"You guys okay?" Moonracer asked the humans. Veronica simply stared at her in awe. Sean and Cole held their weapons tightly, not attacking her, but not really letting their guard down. Penny brushed past them and smiled up at her.

"We're find, Moonracer. Just wet and a little banged up." She said.

Not too far from them, Knockout lifted himself out of the muddy pool he fell into when Moonracer knocked him out with his own energon prod. He spat out a clump of mud and growled at the femme's back. No one, and he meant no one, messed up his finish and lived to see the sunrise! He was going to make that brat wish she never saw his cleanly polished face. Shifting his hands into his lethal medical tools, Knockout prepared to charge at her when someone tapped him on the shoulder.

"What?" Knockout turned around to face a grinning Rodimus.

"Howdy." Rodimus greeted and punched Knockout's lights out.

XXXXXX

A few minutes later, the two Autobots escorted the weary humans out of the cave and back into the bright, sunny outside world. Veronica finished bandaging Kevin's head while Sean and Cole addressed the Autobots.

"I can't believe it. There really are more of you on Terra." Cole whispered. "Looks like Fredericks wasn't talking out of his ass for once."

"So, little girl, you going to tell us what that thing is all about?" Sean asked Penny, pointing to the panel in her arms. "Must be pretty important if you guys are brawling over it."

"That's none of your business." Rodimus said, crossing his arms.

"You bet your shiny metal ass it's our business." Cole growled. "This is our planet you guys are fighting on, so we have a right to know! By all rights, she should be taking you into Skywatch custody-"

"Keller, that's enough." Said Veronica as she and Kevin walked over to them. "These aliens have you outgunned and we can't do a damn thing even if we wanted to. And the fact remains that you two did save our lives."

"So what now?" Kevin asked, rubbing his throbbing forehead. "You going to try to arrest us or something?"

"No." Veronica answered before Cole could reply. "Aside from angering your robotic friends, I don't want to introduce you to our world of espionage. The last thing I need is for the members of our organization who think that working without congressional approval means abandoning our morals to learn about you kids. But please, tell me…what are you?"

The Autobots glanced at each other before Moonracer spoke. "We're Autobots. Soldiers without a home fighting to protect yours."

They shifted to their vehicle modes, further surprising the three agents, and took in Kevin and Penny before driving off down the coastline, leaving the Skywatch agents at the cove.

"Autobots." Veronica whispered, still processing what they experienced today.

"Howard, we need to report this." Cole said. "We've made contact with warring NBEs, proper contact this time."

"Peaceful contact, I might add." Sean added. "Imagine what the top brass will say about this."

"I imagine that despite what we learned today, that there are some peaceful aliens on our world, Fredericks and Jackson will probably ignore it in favor of destroying them all and worsening the situation."

"Fredericks, I understand, but Jackson won't…" Cole trailed off when the normally docile woman glared at her.

"That man will make enemies where there aren't any on the basis of "just being sure". Paranoia makes people do stupid things, Cole. Why should Skywatch be any different?"

And there was still the matter of the mechanoids they dug up from the volcano and Europa. If that boy was telling the truth, then they may have invited a Trojan horse right through their front gates.


	27. The Last Knight

Chapter 27-The Last Knight

Megatron looked at the coordinates shown on the map on the holo-display of Terra's atlas. After sending Knockout's team off to retrieve the first panel from Attilan, he worked on locating coordinates of the second panel, which was located near Britannia.

"The second panel is located within the territory of the so-called Britannia Empire, just a few miles from the mainland." Megatron said and turned to Dreadwing. "From what I've heard, this nation was once the home of powerful warriors with equally powerful weapons that made them kings."

"I will fight an army of these supposed warriors to complete my mission." Dreadwing vowed.

"Yes, yes, I know. But I was referring to what other secrets this land holds. There may be a powerful weapon made by those accursed dolems to bestow upon the ancient humans. During your search for the panel, be sure to keep a sharp eye out for anything out of the ordinary. The dolems like to hide their treasures in plain sight."

"Yes, my lord." Dreadwing bowed his head. "I will not fail you."

"See to it that you don't," Megatron firmly said. "I have already been disappointed enough as it is."

XXXXXX

At the Ark, Optimus was seeing another team off on their mission.

"Stay safe, Bulkhead, and watch out for Annie." Optimus cautioned his subordinate.

"Don't worry, Optimus. The Cons won't expect two heavy hitters charging at them." Bulkhead grinned and shared a fist bump with Enyo before they ran into the ground bridge.

As Ratchet changed the ground bridge's coordinates, Optimus turned to Lifeline. "Lifeline, you're up for the third coordinates."

"Me?" She straightened up in surprise. "Optimus, I'm not exactly built for combat operations. My place is here with Ratchet."

"We need all hands on deck for this, Lifeline. Besides, you have Skyfire there for support."

Lifeline glanced at Lifeline, who attempted to give her a wink, despite having no eyes and only a singular visor. "Wonderful."

As she prepared for her mission, Optimus turned to Sunstreaker, who was itching to roll out. "Are we ready to go, Prime? I'm ready to tear some Con tailpipe!"

"In a moment, Sunstreaker, we must wait for the other two members of our team." Optimus looked over at Darren and Gina, who were powering up their talos. "I'm sorry to drag you both onto another mission so soon after getting back, but we don't have time to wait for the others to return. Are you two up for another mission?"

"We're ready, Optimus." Darren said. "Just give the word."

Sunstreaker gaped at the two talos, and then turned to Optimus. "P-Prime, you're not really going to bring two humans along with us."

"I am, Sunstreaker. Is that a problem?"

'Of course it is!' Sunstreaker wanted to say. These humans had no business sticking their nose in a cybertronian war. Their war. He didn't want a bunch of fleshies getting in the way of an already difficult mission. But like any good soldier, he knew when not to voice his grievances in a time of urgency. Instead, he replied, "No problem at all, Optimus. Just making sure."

Optimus nodded and faced his team. "We move out immediately. We have a lot of ground to cover and every second counts."

Ratchet changed the coordinates for the ground bridge and Prime's team raced into the portal, vanishing into the swirling green vortex.

XXXXXX

It was early morning in Engalia of the Britannia Empire, and the team ground bridged to a remote part of the country's eastern coastal region. The sun had yet to rise, but the dark blue sky was already showing the first signs of morning. All was quiet, and the only sound that could be heard was that of birds chirping and the deep metal footsteps of the Autobots.

"What a beautiful place." Gina smiled, taking in the scenery. "Dad never took me to Engalia before, so this is all new to me. The documentaries on TV don't do this place justice."

"I should take some pictures." Darren said. "I'm sure Debbie's going to freak with this view."

"Yo, tiny, this ain't a vacation." Sunstreaker said. "Stow the chatter and move it!"

"You're one to talk about chatter!" Darren yelled back and sat back in his seat. "I really hate that guy."

"Don't let him get to you, Darren." Gina said. "Just ignore him and focus on the mission."

They moved their talos down the slope onto the beach where Optimus and Sunstreaker were waiting with Sara.

"We don't have a second to lose before the Decepticons locate us." Optimus said, and looked down at the green haired android. "Sara, are you capable of finding an inactive stasis panel in the area?"

"I have downloaded the general area of the panel's location, but finding its exact resting place will be difficult." Sara said. "We must head further inland and…" She trailed off and looked towards the horizon, puzzling those present.

"And what?" Sunstreaker asked and rolled his eyes. "Great, I think your toy robot is broken, blondie."

"She's not broken, genus, she's detecting something." Gina said and looked down at her. "Sara, what's wrong."

"Enemy signatures are approaching from the sea." Sara said and pointed towards the horizon. "ETA, five seconds."

Sara filtered out the sunlight in her vision and spotted four airborne figures flying at them. It was the Seekers, with Dreadwing in the lead. As soon as the Seekers spotted the Autobots on the beach, they opened fire on them, forcing the team to do the same.

Thundercracker and Skywarp fired two missiles at the beach. Optimus and Sunstreaker jumped apart as they hit the beach, causing sand and water to fly everywhere, while Darren and Gina shot back at the Cons. Dreadwing used the sun to cover his approach and shot a missile at Prometheus, catching the talos in the shoulder and knocking it off balance.

"Crap, we're too open down here! They're going to swarm us!" Darren grunted.

"We can fly up and take them on." Gina suggested.

"No, Gina, you two need to conserve your energy. Aerial combat against a Seeker is unwise for those unaccustomed to you two." Optimus said.

"So what do we do?" Sunstreaker asked, shooting a blast at Skyquake.

"We'll split up into pairs and regroup at the panel's location." Prime said. "Everyone into the forest."

The group quickly ran up the slope as Dreadwing and Thundercracker dropped bombs onto the beach, lighting up the area with explosions. Smoke and flames filled the air as the Autobots split up and ran to different parts of the forest, disappearing into the trees.

"They're making a run for it!" Skywarp said.

"Follow them." Dreadwing commanded. "Don't let them leave this forest alive!"

The Seekers split into pairs; Thundercracker with Skywarp and Dreadwing with Skyquake. The former pursued Optimus and Sunstreaker, firing their auto-cannons at the Autobots as they drove through the forest in their alt modes. After having some laser bolts pelt his hood, Sunstreaker decided he did enough running and swerved around, deploying his missile launcher from his hood and shot two missiles at the Seekers.

Thundercracker dodged the missiles to let them explode harmlessly against the trees behind him as he transformed and landed on the ground. Before Sunstreaker had a chance to react, Thundercracker clapped his hands and blew the Autobot back with a powerful sonic boom that tore through the forest like lightning. Sunstreaker crashed through a tree before changing forms and grabbed onto a tree trunk, swinging himself around to throw himself at Thundercracker. He planted his feet into Thundercracker's chest and punching the mech in the nose before blasting him with his heat cannon. They hit the ground and Sunstreaker threw him into a tree, smashing apart its trunk.

"Ha, did you see that, Optimus?" Sunstreaker cheered. "That was smoother than Jazz's dance moves!"

"Focus, Sunstreaker. We need to keep moving!" Optimus said.

Skywarp appeared above him, ready to attack, but Optimus leapt off a tree and kicked him in the nose of his jet mode, knocking him to the ground. Optimus pointed his ion cannon at Skywarp, but the large form of Sunstreaker slammed into him from the side, thrown by Thundercracker, who flew over to his downed friend.

"Keep up the pressure!" Thundercracker said, clapping his hands together to create another sonic boom that rippled through the area. It hit Optimus with enough force to crack the windshields on his chest and knock him back a few feet. "Don't let them recover!"

"I know that, nimrod, don't tell me how to do my job!" Skywarp shouted and shot at Optimus, forcing him to take cover. As he shot at tree Prime was hiding behind, he just realized something. "Wait, where's the yellow one?"

Sunstreaker fell upon the Cons from above, shooting Skywarp in the face with a low-burst plasma blast that blinded him long enough for Optimus to blast him in the chest with an ion blast. Thundercracker tried to attack Sunstreaker, but the Autobot grabbed his arm and threw him to the ground. A hard knee to the face put Thundercracker's lights out and he slumped to the ground.

"I'm gold, not yellow, cog sucker." Sunstreaker grinned.

XXXXXX

The Prometheus and Athena glided through the forest, dodging laser fire from the Seeker twins shooting them from above. Trees were torn to shreds from stray laser fire, used mostly as cover to protect the two talos from the relentless onslaught that pursued them. The forest was very restrictive for both parties; the talos and Seekers couldn't fly very well with all the trees surrounding them and they also didn't have much room to maneuver for their more powerful weaponry.

"Damn it all!" Skyquake growled as he dodged a beam from Gina that she shot at him. The blast shot dangerously close to his wing and the heat of the attack singed the armor there. "Dreadwing, we're not going to get them like this!"

"Then we try another tactic." Dreadwing said. "Split up and come at them from both sides."

Gina bit her lip as she weaved through the trees on a cloud of sol particles while also keeping an eye on her rear camera monitor. "Sara, how close are we to the coordinates?"

"Not too far, just a little under a mile." Sara said, holding on tight to the Athena's shoulder. Sara glanced behind them and saw that the Seekers had broken off the pursuit. "The Decepticons have disengaged."

"What?" Darren switched his talos to manual mode and landed on the ground, forcing Gina to do the same.

"Darren, we have to keep moving. The Cons will beat us to the panel if we stop."

"No, Dreadwing's the type of mech who would take out the competition first before going for the prize." Darren kept his eyes peeled, not looking away from the video monitors for anything. "They're probably going to try a different hunting tact-"

A laser blast hit Athena in the side and sent it crashing into a tree. Darren cursed and boosted, but the large form of Dreadwing jumped down on his back, grabbing Prometheus and pinning the talos to the ground. Gina brought up her pulse cannons, but Skyquake fired his autocannon at her to drive her back, nearly shredding her armor apart.

"Filthy human," Dreadwing growled, holding Prometheus's arms to the ground and glaring right into its eyes. "Did you really think you could last against two seasoned warriors?"

"I don't know," Darren grunted. "Ask Lugnut. I hear he's feeling a bit holey these days."

Dreadwing growled and picked the talos up, slamming it through three trees before throwing it to the ground. Darren winced at the violent movements he was experiencing and moved to draw his beam saber. But Dreadwing was faster, drawing his own foldable sword and swiftly severing Prometheus's right arm in one quick movement.

"How did…?" Darren gaped.

"I am a Decepticon," Dreadwing said, kicking the talos in the chest hard enough to nearly throw Darren from his seat. "A human has no place on the battlefield, especially a child!"

Dreadwing raised his sword to impale the talos in the chest, when Sara fell down on him firing her palm blasters. Her attacks did little damage, but they did anger him, and he spun around, swinging his sword at her. Sara angled her body to avoid the sharp blade, losing only a few strands of hair in the process. Dreadwing went to grab her, but Skyquake's big body slammed into him, thrown by Gina.

"Darren!" Gina appeared in her talos, gliding over to her boyfriend. "Are you alright?"

"I'm not hurt, but my talos is missing an arm." Darren said, taking a deep breath to calm his headache.

"Can you move?" Sara asked.

"Yeah." He said.

"Then we must keep moving. The coordinates are not too far from our current position." Sara jumped onto Athena as Prometheus slowly stood up and followed its partner into the forest.

Dreadwing pushed his brother off and glared at the retreating talos. "You won't get far, humans."

Darren and Gina flew as fast as they could without crashing into any trees. Darren checked his rear camera view and saw that they weren't being followed. "They aren't chasing us?"

"Keep your eye on the prize." Gina said, keeping an eye on her talos' power levels. Athena only had a few minutes to recharge its Apollo reactor, so she didn't have to worry too much about power right now, but they couldn't fight prolonged battles like this. "This Con knows what he's doing and-jinkies!"

Two trees in front of Gina exploded, the blast wave knocking Athena back into Prometheus. More trees exploded around them, rattling the forest as plumes of flames blossomed into an inferno, courtesy of the bombs Dreadwing planted on them. Gina covered Sara in her mecha's hands as she and Darren glided through the flames, trying to outrun the detonations peppering the forest. It was fortunate that they were already close to their destination-a large lake with a massive castle sitting on a swath of land just a few feet from the shore.

"We're almost there, keep flying!" Darren yelled.

They made it out of the forest and into the clearing when the ground under them blew up, throwing their talos off balance. Darren and Gina cried out in alarm as they hit the ground and rolled across the grass and dirt. Sara was just barely able to hang on.

Just as they got their bearings, the entire clearing went up in a mighty ball of fire as a blue and purple jet flew over them, dropping a rain of nearly two dozen cluster bombs on the lakeside. Animals for miles would run for the hills as they heard a thunderous boom rumble the forest like an earthquake.

XXXXXX

Dreadwing and Skyquake entered the smoke filled, crater covered lakeside as Thundercracker and Skywarp flew in and changed to their natural forms upon landing.

Did you have to carpet bomb the place?" Thundercracker sniffed, waving smoke from his face. "I can't see a damn thing."

"The brats were getting away; I did the first thing that came to mind." Skywarp said.

"Where are the humans?" Dreadwing demanded. Skywarp pointed to the two large forms lying on the ground a few feet from them.

Dreadwing drew his sword and walked over to the motionless talos. Prometheus and Athena were severely damaged, having lost much of their outer armor and suffered serious damage to their limbs. The Prometheus was missing an arm and both its legs were mangled, while the Athena was largely intact thanks to its heavy armor, mainly due to Darren protecting it with his powers during the heavy rain. But Dreadwing was more concerned with the lack of pilots and the opened cockpit hatches on the talos.

"They're gone!" He scowled.

"They must've made a run for it using the smoke as cover." Thundercracker hummed, kicking Athena in the side. "Told you those brats were crafty."

Skyquake growled and grabbed Thundercracker by the neck, pulling him close. "Then where are they, smart guy?" He snarled.

Skywarp called out to them and pointed at the lake. On an invisible platform of telekinetic energy, Darren, Gina and Sara were gliding along the water at speeds almost rivaling a motorboat. Skywarp prepared to teleport, but a blast caught him in the back of the head, sending him to the ground.

Optimus and Sunstreaker drove out of the forest in vehicle mode and transformed, aiming their weapons at the Seekers. Skyquake snarled and stepped forward, but Dreadwing held him back.

"We'll handle the Autobots. You take care of the humans and retrieve the panel." He told his brother. Skyquake frowned, but shifted to jet mode to fly across the lake.

"You're too late, Prime. The panel is within our grasp and your human slaves are slated for extermination at the hands of my brother." Dreadwing announced, motioning to the damaged talos. "Without their toys, your pets defenseless paper tigers."

"Here is something you should learn, Dreadwing, never underestimate humans. You'll find that they have a habit of embarrassing you in the process." Optimus said.

"Spoken like a true weakling." Dreadwing replied.

Silence followed. The scorched was finally clearing was finally starting to ebb of smoke, and the opposing cybertronians now had a clear view of each other. Optimus and Dreadwing did not move or speak, simply waiting for the right moment to take action. A cold wind blew across the clearing, and both teams began to get impatient as they waited for that perfect moment in the break to attack.

Then, at some silent signal, Optimus and Dreadwing raised their weapons and fired simultaneously and the forest was set aflame once more.

XXXXXX

As soon as they made it to the castle, Gina had to carry Darren onto dry land before he collapsed. The boy was exhausted, having suffered from minor head trauma from the pounding his talos took when he protected Gina and Sara from the raining bombs, and having to transport them across the river afterwards. Once they got him into the castle's courtyard, Sara ran a diagnostic scan on him.

"His wounds aren't serious. He's mainly suffering from the mental strain of using his powers earlier." Sara said. "I would advise that he refrain from using his powers for a while."

"I second that." Gina said and kissed Darren on the forehead. "How are you feeling?"

"Like Centurion tap danced on my head." Darren replied, slowly getting to his feet. "Are we in the castle?"

"Yes, I pulled you here myself. We're in the main hall by the entrance." Gina told him.

"I thought it was the groom's job to carry the bride." Darren joked. Gina giggled and slapped his arm.

"Jinkies, Darren, now's not the time." She scolded her cheeks pink.

Their moment was broken when they heard jet engines roaring outside, followed by the heavy thump of large feet. "Come out, humans and relinquish the panel," Skyquake ordered. "Or I'll raze this castle to the ground!"

"I don't think he's bluffing." Darren muttered.

"Well let's not give him the chance to make good on his threat." Gina said and took Sara's hand. "Sara, help Darren find the panel. I'll go hold Skyquake off."

"No! You're not doing that!" Darren yelled. He still had nightmares of her death at the Ark, and he wasn't going through that again.

"Darren, I'm an inhuman. I was literally designed to take maximum punishment." Gina said, smiling softly. "And you are in no condition to do any heavy fighting."

Sara, too, look like she wanted to protest, but she resigned herself to following Gina's orders. But that didn't quell the anxious feeling manifesting in her gut. Was this what fear felt like?

Darren tried to convince her to not play hero, but she merely kissed him deeply and ran out of the hall, pulling her plasma blaster (the famed "Gina Blaster") to face the Seeker. Darren bit his lip and turned to Sara.

"We need to work fast." He said briskly. Sara nodded and her eyes enlarged as they scanned the hall. Her regular vision shifted into infrared, tracking the radiation she knew was related to stasis panels, seeing the invisible trail composed from their brief fall through the atmosphere. She tracked the trail deeper into the castle, pulling Darren with her until they reached the throne room.

Seeing the throne room, Darren realized that he never knew whose castle this belonged to. It was obviously some powerful English lord that once called this fortress home in the past, and the throne room was probably magnificent in its prime. The stained glass windows were still mostly intact, but dirty, however one of them was still clear enough to look at. It depicted a tall, powerful looking man, the king most likely, standing at attention before a stylized sun with a long sword in his grasp. A sword that looked much too extravagant to be any regular sword.

Sara walked over to the dinner table and looked it over before grabbing the edge and throwing it aside like it was a handkerchief. Darren jumped back out of reflex. "What are you doing?"

Sara knelt down over the spot the table was standing over and ran her fingers along the worn, gray stones. He stopped over a stone that had a single rune carved into it, a rune not commonly seen in Medieval architecture or religion. Out of curiosity, she pushed down and the stone sank lower like a button. To their surprise, the floor started to collapse in a circular pattern, revealing a spiraling staircase that went downward, creaking and groaning from centuries of disuse.

"You don't see that every day." Darren commented. What was it with ancient cultures and secret hidden chambers?

XXXXXX

The minute Optimus and Dreadwing pulled their triggers, the battle kicked off with a bang. The two leaders traded bursts of energy as their comrades fought around them. Dreadwing grunted as he took an ion blast to his shoulder and switched the rate of fire on his cannon to deploy missiles. Optimus flipped over the three projectiles and charged at Dreadwing, slamming into his and knocking him into the water.

Optimus punched his face a few times before he was kicked off, rolling on his back and landing on his feet. Dreadwing stood up, drawing his sword and spun it in the air before charging at Prime. Optimus took out his axe and swung it at Dreadwing. Sparks flew and metal screeched as they fought an archaic battle of blades in a land that was, unknown to them, once the territory of the most famous king in Britannia's history. They fought like the warriors of old, with a ferocity that would make Megatron proud.

As for Sunstreaker, he was fighting Thundercracker and Skywarp. He drove circles around them as they tried to shoot him down, shooting back with the miniguns in his headlights. When Skywarp abandoned shooting in favor of his bayonet, Sunstreaker changed forms and kicked the Con in the face.

"Bet you wished you had wheels as good as mine, didn't ya?" Sunstreaker smirked. Then a missile caught him in the chest and sent him crashing to the ash-covered ground, rolling until he hit a tree head first.

"Nah, we're good with our wings." Thundercracker retorted, hovering over the ground in jet mode.

Sunstreaker cursed and rubbed the smoking burn in his side. He went to car mode and drove into the forest gaining a grin from Skywarp. "We got a runner!"

"Good, I always fancy a chase." Thundercracker said. He and Skywarp flew back into the forest, maintaining a healthy distance from the ground and expertly avoiding the branches in their path.

Sunstreaker led them a good distance into the forest, away from Prime's battle, avoiding the rapid fire laser blasts trying to turn him into a burning wreck. He slowed down so that they gained some speed on him, and once he felt the hot air from their exhaust ports, Sunstreaker transformed and jumped onto the nearest Con-which was Skywarp. One photon blast took out the purple mech's right wing and he jumped off onto a branch.

"You bastard!" Skywarp shouted as he went out of control, hitting a tree and spinning in the air before reverting to his bipedal form. Skywarp crashed to the ground and landed hard on his shoulder.

"One down." Sunstreaker breathed. Now where was the other one?

Thundercracker fell on him from above and both mechs crashed through multiple branches before hitting the ground. The blue Seeker kicked Sunstreaker in the face and glared at the Autobot.

"You got anything else to say you little smart mouth?" Thundercracker growled and flew at Sunstreaker, intent to gore the Autobot for his arrogance.

XXXXXX

The staircase took Darren and Sara deep under the castle, probably around two feet underground. It was pitch black and the air was musty from no one having gone down there for so long. At the bottom of the staircase was a large door that was rusted shut, though it took Darren little effort to rip it free to get inside. The chamber inside was larger than they expected, with four large statues of knights past, all standing in four corners of the room, heads bowed and hands on their pommels. At the center of the room was a large, ornate coffin covered in cob webs, and carved on the lid was the Minicon symbol.

"That's it!" Darren ran over to the coffin, but his pace slowed as he stood over it. He wasn't really too keen on grave robbing, but a lot was at stake here now. With a wave of his hand, he moved the old lid aside and revealed a ragged corpse inside, almost entirely wasted away but still wearing old, rusty armor. In the body's hands was the Minicon panel. "Sorry for intruding, but we kind of need this. No hard feelings, sir." He said and telekinetically lifted the panel out of its bony grasp."

Sara looked around the chamber and spotted something they somehow missed. "Darren, look."

She pointed to a large, round boulder sitting at the foot of the coffin. It was finely shaped, definitely carved that way, and covered in curved lines that were probably runes of some sort. Darren, however, was more interested in the sword hilt sticking out of the boulder. Taking cautious steps towards it, he felt the sword radiate power, kind of like Mjolnir. It was nothing like the short swords knights used in the old days; it was silver with a long blade that was completely buried inside the boulder, and its cross guard hilt had stylized glyphs on both sides (Excalibur from TLK). This weapon was old, but it looked like time had no effect on it. Looking back and forth between the sword and the coffin, Darren quickly made a startling realization.

"Oh my god, is this Excalibur?" Darren whispered, and turned to the coffin. "Then that makes you…King Arthur?!"

"Darren?" Sara inquired softly, wondering why her master's lover looked like he was about to explode like a firecracker.

Just as Darren was about to go into fanboy mode at stumbling on the most historical find in Britannia's history, he felt the chamber tremble for a second and heard a very faint explosion up top.

"That was Ms. Gina." Sara said. "She needs our help."

"And we'll help her," Darren handed the panel to Sara and looked at the sword. If this sword was anything like Mjolnir, then it might give him the power he needed to get Gina out of trouble. He walked over to the stone and reached for the hilt. "With some added firepower."

"Wait, I'm detecting a faint energy leaking from the sword. It could be dangerous." Sara warned him.

"No more dangerous than fighting a Decepticon bare handed." Darren shot back. "Now stand back. This is going to get loud."

Darren took a deep breath and wrapped his hands around the hilt and pulled. The instant his skin made contact with the sword, pain erupted through his hands. It was like he placed his hands on a hot stove and kept it there for as long as he could. Energy shot from the sword, sometimes striking Darren's arms as he struggled to pull it free, ignoring the agonizing pain traveling from his hands and up his arms.

"Come on!" Darren shouted through clenched teeth. "Work with me!"

Excalibur felt like hot iron in his hands, yet he still persisted, and the sword slowly slid out of the rock, inch by inch. Darren was far too blinded by pain to realize what he was doing, but Sara could see the sword emerge from its prison, with the energy surges becoming more violent as more of the blade was revealed. When the pain finally became too much, Darren gave a bellowing cry and gave one final yank, pulling Excalibur free and stumbling onto his butt. The light Excalibur gave off was akin to a star, and both Sara and Darren were almost blinded by its radiance. Excalibur was free once again.

XXXXXX

Gina knew that being an inhuman did not mean she was invincible, and this was made evident when she fought Skyquake one on one by herself. Using her distortion halo was hard when she was forced to constantly keep moving to avoid getting torn to shreds by bullets as large as her body.

"I came here to kill humans and only one comes to fight me?" Skyquake boomed. "How many times must you animals insult me?"

"You? I'm the one who should be insulted that Dreadwing sent you instead of someone smarter, like Thundercracker." Gina replied.

Skyquake growled and continued his assault on her. Gina performed a series of superhuman acrobatics across the courtyard, her enhanced physique allowing her to avoid certain death at the hands of a giant gun. Ducking under the portcullis, she summoned a distortion halo effect in the barrel of his cannon, exploding it. Enraged, Skyquake threw his damaged cannon at her, which she dodged, only to see his large fist coming her way.

Gina flipped over his hand, grabbing his middle finger and pulling it back to the point of breaking it. With a hard yank, she tore the finger off and threw it at his face like a spear, catching him in the eye. Skyquake shouted in pain and swung his arm into the castle wall, sending rocks flying everywhere. Gina fired off another halo effect into his shoulder before a rock hit her in the head and sent her to the ground.

"Damn." She groaned, panting heavily. She used a lot of energy to damage Skyquake, and that wasn't a good thing. Gina took off her helmet and looked up, screaming as she saw Skyquake standing over her with visible rage in his single working eye.

"It's time you pathetic humans learned your place in the Decepticon Empire," Skyquake raised his foot over her. "Under our heel."

He brought his foot down, but before it could crush her, a sharp, point of light stabbed into the side of his leg. It didn't stop, cutting into hits circuitry and emerging through the other side in a gush of energon. Gina used the distraction to run away as she saw what saved her-a flying broadsword coated in a silver aura. She tracked it with her eyes and saw it return to the one who threw it.

"Darren?" Gina breathed.

Darren caught Excalibur in his hands, which were slightly burned, with the sleeves of his pilot suit burned to his elbows. The silver sword in his grasp glowed like the morning star, and hummed like a tuning fork. Sara flew over to Gina and helped her up.

"Sara, what's going on?" She asked.

"Something…unexpected, Ms. Gina." Sara said.

"Another human," Skyquake rolled his shoulders. "Maybe you will last longer than the girl."

"I don't know about longer, but I can certainly pack a punch." Darren raised his sword. "You can ask Lugnut how hard we hit."

"Lord Megatron promised us a reward for killing the vermin who struck down Lugnut. Dead or alive, but preferably dead." Skyquake limped over to him as he spoke. "If I cannot obtain the panel, then at least I can present your corpses to him!"

"Then come at get it!"

Skyquake swung his fist at Darren, who leapt over his arm to allow the punch to slam into the ground under him. Jumping off Skyquake's arm, he propelled himself at the Con's face and channeled TK energy into the sword, spinning around and swinging the blade at Skyquake's neck.

XXXXXX

Sunstreaker grunted as he hit the ground after getting thrown out of the forest by another one of Thundercracker's sonic booms. Thundercracker flew out of the canopy and landed in front of him, with Skywarp warping beside him. The yellow and black Autobot groaned and stood up, hopping from foot to foot with his arms raised.

"What are you bozos waiting for?" Sunstreaker taunted. "Let's go!"

At the lakeside, Optimus and Dreadwing continued their fight, though both mechs looked worse than when they began. Both combatants were on the verge of overheating and were exhausted, but they didn't sport any wounds that were more than superficial. It was only by their conviction that they kept their weapons raised for the next strike.

"Are you tired yet, Prime?" Dreadwing asked. "Would you like me to finish this now?"

"I was about to ask you the same thing." Optimus said.

Dreadwing ran at Optimus and swung his blade in an upward strike, managing to land a slash on Prime's chest. He wasn't expecting the Autobot leader to suddenly grab his blade, pull him forward and throw him into the deeper part of the lake. Optimus tossed the sword away as Dreadwing stood up in the water.

"I don't hear any more noise coming from the castle." He said. "I take it your brother is learning just how difficult humans can be."

"We are Seekers!" Dreadwing snarled, water dripping off his battered body. "There is nothing we can't-" Dreadwing froze mid-sentence before letting out a horrific scream that ran throughout the entire clearing. Optimus, Sunstreaker, Thundercracker and Skywarp looked at him perplexed as the commander fell back into the water in pain, though he sported no wounds.

"What the hell is going on?" Sunstreaker asked.

"I don't know, I didn't do any significant damage to him." Optimus said, just as confused. He looked to the castle and came to a realization. There was only one reason Dreadwing would be having such a reaction. "The children!"

Optimus and Sunstreaker dove into the water and swam past Dreadwing towards the castle, leaving Skywarp and Thundercracker to attend to their leader.

"What's wrong with him?" Skywarp asked.

"No idea, but we need to get him off the field." Thundercracker said. Skywarp saw the Autobots heading for the castle.

"But the Minicon!"

"Let them have the damn thing! Nightshade will skin us alive if we let Dreadwing die!" Thundercracker yelled. "Now where's Skyquake?"

Skywarp tried to hail Skyquake on the comm but got no response. "He's not answering.

"Sky…Skyquake…" Dreadwing moaned, his voice raspy and weak, tinged with despair. A far cry from his usual strong tone. "He's…gone…gone…I can't feel him…anymore…"

Thundercracker and Skywarp traded a troubled glance, knowing what that meant. As twins, Dreadwing and Skyquake shared a special bond only cybertronian siblings could have. If Dreadwing was like this…then that meant they were short one Seeker.

Thundercracker closed his eyes and called the Nemesis. "This is Thundercracker calling for an immediate ground bridge. Mission failed."

XXXXXX

Optimus and Sunstreaker ran through the partially destroyed castle gates to see the children and their android guardian, exhausted and bruised, but safe and sound. Sara had the panel in her possession and was starting at the large body not too far from them. Then they saw the still body of Skyquake, face down on the ground with his head lying a few feet away, eyes dark and expression stuck in a snarl, frozen in death.

"Holy…" Sunstreaker gaped. "What happened here?"

Darren, who had his arm around Gina's shoulders, gave the Autobots an eerily dead look as he held Excalibur in his other hand. "Nothing out of the ordinary, unfortunately." He said and leaned against his girlfriend.

Optimus gave a sigh of relief and shook his head. He was glad to see that they were alive and well, though having another Decepticon dead at their hands was sure to paint a bigger target on their backs. With Skyquake dead, Dreadwing was sure to enact his own brand of retribution on them.

But for now, they would go home with the panel and more in hand. Better to cross that bridge when they reached it.

XXXXXX

Dreadwing writhed in agony on his recharge slab in the privacy of his quarters, his body still suffering the effects of the phantom pain of the violent severing of his body to his twin. Skyquake was dead, and that feeling, that emptiness, was never going to fade. It will haunt him for the rest of his life.

"Those humans," Dreadwing growled, his fingers digging gouges into the bed. "I'll kill them along with the Autobots!"

And the cycle of hatred continues.


	28. Nightengale

Chapter 28-Nightengale

Skyfire tossed her particle canon from hand to hand like she was playing with a ball and not a dangerous weapon. Despite the serious nature of her mission, she was walking on sunshine. Why? Because a certain someone (who was totally into her by the way) was partnered up with her, and her alone. The perfect opportunity to score a first base initiative. The ground bridge popped into existence and from it came Lifeline, who looked anything but happy about her mission. Skyfire stood up straight and saluted her.

"Hey, doc. Ready for a second date?" She asked smoothly.

Lifeline sighed. "Skyfire, please remember that we are on an important mission. At least try to take this seriously."

Pfft, I'm always serious, doc. I'm just better at hiding it than you." Skyfire huffed.

"And don't call me doc! My name is Lifeline, use it!"

"Whatever you say, sunshine." Skyfire changed into her jet mode and flew into the air.

Lifeline gnashed her teeth together in agitation. She could already feel a headache coming on just from talking to her. The medic transformed to vehicle mode and drove after Skyfire, following the coordinates and driving into the forest.

XXXXXX

" _So…you have any hobbies?"_ Skyfire asked over the comm. _"I like flying, exploring, and-"_

"Skyfire, please, can we not do this right now?" Lifeline sighed. She grunted as she drove over a sharp rock that scratched her underside. The forest wasn't exactly a place for an emergency vehicle like her to safely traverse without getting scratched up.

"Sorry, just tryin' to lighten the mood. It's not good going into a mission so tense." She said, flying low above the trees to see her. "You gotta to relax more. You're too tense."

"And you're too lax. This is a mission, not a date." Lifeline pointed out. "So could you do me a favor and keep watch for any Cons before they blast us apart? That would be great."

"Ha! Like they know we're here." Skyfire scoffed and increased her altitude. "We just need to lay low. There's nothing to worry about yet."

As if to prove her wrong, a sudden explosion of white flames erupted right next to Lifeline's path, almost making her crash into a tree. Skyfire cursed and leaned to the right to avoid the next white arrow came down on her from above. Above them, the dark shape of Nightshade descended upon them like a bird of prey, sunlight glinting off her black armor as she fired her missiles at Lifeline, seeing that she was the weakest of the bunch. There was no theatrics, no taunting, just a quick defeat before continuing with her mission. Nightshade really wasn't in the mood right now.

Lifeline screamed as another missile hit the ground near her wheels and made her tip over. She transformed mid-roll and took cover behind a tree, drawing her blaster. Nightshade circled around for another strike, but Skyfire was on her tail shooting at her rear.

"Try fighting someone who can fly, glitch!" Skyfire yelled, firing her plasma cannons at the Con.

Nightshade broke off her attack on Lifeline to escape Skyfire's assault. The Autobot ace maintained a fair distance from Nightshade as she chased her across the sky, no letting up in her assault. Nightshade had no chance to fight back, as slowing down to transform would mean getting hit directly. Skyfire was an egotistical loudmouth, but she knew her stuff about aerial combat.

Increasing her speed, Nightshade changed into her beast mode's secondary form, her wings fixing into place and her head and talons sliding into connections to make her form look more like a bestial stealth fighter. She zigzagged through the sky, flying upwards so that the sun was on her back. Skyfire maintained her pursuit, ignoring Lifeline's calls for her to come back.

"You ain't runnin' from me, Ms. Turkey." Skyfire grunted. She knew what the Con was doing-keeping the sun on her back to blind her. Too bad it was a predictable maneuver. What she didn't expect, however, was for Nightshade to come descending upon her with her in bipedal mode with her swords drawn. "Slag!"

Skyfire also transformed to fight her, but Nightshade was faster, slashing her across the chest before she even finishing changing. Skyfire recovered and drew her arm blade, slashing at Nightshade's head, but the Con cut into her shoulder instead. The Autobot leaned back and shoved her feet into Nightshade's face, dousing her head in white hot flames from her boosters. Nightshade hissed and flew back, drawing Gandiva and pulling back the string just as Skyfire took out her particle cannon.

Back on the ground, Lifeline covered her eyes as a bright explosion lit up right over her head. The deafening boom was enough to make her audio receptors fill with static for a moment. She looked up and saw two figures falling from the massive smoke cloud like meteors.

"Skyfire!"

XXXXXX

The first thing Skyfire saw upon awakening was Lifeline's beautiful silver face, which was good. Then she felt the sharp pain in her back and the headache pounding in her skull, which was bad. Worse than that hangover from losing that drinking game with Blurr, and that was saying something.

"Are you an angel?" She asked dreamily.

"How can I be an angel if I have no wings?" Lifeline said blandly. "Stop squirming, I'm trying to fix your wing."

"My wing?"

Skyfire realized that Lifeline was welding up a deep cut along the base of her right wing. She also felt that her boosters were also damaged, though not as severely. When she asked what happened, Lifeline's lips turned down in a deep frown.

"You and Nightshade blew each other out of the sky and nearly scrapped yourselves. We're sitting in the crater you made upon crashing."

'That explains the lack of grass stuck in my servos.' Skyfire thought.

"I've been fixing your wounds for the last fifteen minute while waiting for you to wake up. I have no idea where Nightshade is, but I doubt she's in better condition." She went on.

"That's a win for us, I guess." Skyfire sighed. "What's the damage, doc?"

"Nothing serious, but your thrusters are almost shot and your right wing was just barely hanging onto your back when I found you."

"Can I still fly?"

"Yes, a little, but-" She jumped back when the former Seeker shot back to her feet.

"So we're good then. Sweet!" She exclaimed, but then doubled over when she felt her back ache again. "Ow…"

"You're definitely not good, you dunderhead!" Lifeline shouted. "You just fought Nightshade by yourself when you know she excels at close combat. She could've killed you with that bow."

"But she didn't." Skyfire pointed out.

"Don't try to turn this around. You never should've engaged her!"

"So I should've let her use you for target practice instead? No way, sister. That's not how this mate rolls!"

Lifeline crossed her arms. "I can take care of myself."

"Yeah, but you're my partner and it's my job to keep you safe." Skyfire replied and then added, "And vice versa."

Flashpoint sighed and rubbed her forehead. "Look, you can't fly right now, not in your condition. The best you can do is boost jumps, but try to force it any longer and you'll rupture your fuel lines and blow yourself up."

Skyfire wanted to protest, say that she could fly even in the worst conditions, but the serious look in Lifeline's eyes stopped her. First rule of combat was to always listen to the medic. If the doctor tells you not to do something, you obey without question. Your life was in their hands and it would to do make their job harder than it already needed to be.

"Fine," She grumbled. "I'll keep my boots on the ground. But how are we going to reach the panel without my wings?"

Flashpoint smirked and collapsed into her vehicle mode. "I'll use my wheels. You run."

Skyfire gaped at her as she drove into the forest, leaving her in the dust. She sighed and grumbled angrily about cocky four wheelers as she jogged after her partner.

XXXXXX

Nightshade pushed a chunk of oak tree off her and hissed in pain when she tried to move her wings. The explosion was like a concussion bomb had detonated in her face and everything ached. She heard a metallic screech and Songbird flew onto a low hanging branch.

"Mistress, are you alright?" Songbird asked.

"Just give me a second." She said, waiting for her senses to return before standing up. Wouldn't look very dignified to fall over from dizziness.

Songbird gasped as she saw Nightshade's bent left wing. "Your wing…"

Nightshade winced as she wiggled the damaged appendage. "Looks like I'm running from here on out," She grumbled. "Damn Autobot. If it's not Starscream, it's the Autobots' fragging wingman."

"Mistress, I just saw the Autobots heading towards the panel. The flyer you fought seems to have been downed."

"Really? Wonderful," Nightshade smirked. "That makes my job easier. Songbird, keep an eye on them and tell me how close they are. I'll join you shortly."

Songbird bowed her head. "Yes, mistress."

XXXXXX

Skyfire had never felt so stupid in her life. She was a flyer trying to catch an ambulance on foot. It wouldn't have been too hard if the damn trees didn't get in her way. Not to mention those damn roots that kept tripping her. And if one more branch smacked her in the face…

"How are you doing back there?" Lifeline called back to him. Skyfire could hear the grin in her voice.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up." Skyfire muttered. "Kick a girl when she's down."

"Think of this as getting some much needed physical training in." She laughed.

Skyfire wanted to be mad at her, but hearing her actually laugh for the first time made it hard to be really angry. She had the luck lady (or whatever the humans called her) on her side for being partnered up with Lifeline. Darren said it best, hot nerds were awesome!

Her reverie was interrupted when another branch hit him in the face. Cursing loudly, she tore it off the tree and threw it to the ground, crushing it underfoot. "That's it! I'm sick of these bloody trees!"

"Skyfire, it's not that serious."

"No, I'm gonna teach these overgrown ferns a lesson!"

She went to kick the tree, when it suddenly exploded in her face, sending shards of bark and leaves into her face. Lifeline immediately spun around and transformed, running towards Skyfire. She screamed as an arrow shot over her head, and destroyed the tree on her left. Skyfire stumbled back, slamming her head into the tree behind her in her shock.

"Wow, didn't know that the trees here were so lethal." Skyfire remarked. Lifeline ducked for cover and whacked her leg.

"We're under attack, you moron!" She yelled. "I think it's Nightshade!"

Skyfire peeked around the tree and saw a large, dark shape sprint through the trees like a shadow. When she saw it stop and look at her with two dark violet eyes, Skyfire grabbed Lifeline and rolled away as the tree she was hiding behind was vaporized by another arrow. She pushed Lifeline behind another tree and took out her particle cannon.

"Stay close to me, Lifeline." Skyfire said. She fired her cannon in the direction the arrows were coming from and forced Nightshade out into the open. As she was shooting at the Con, she didn't notice Songbird flying at her from above until the Minicon changed into her weapon mode and fired a plasma beam at her. Lifeline pushed Skyfire out of the way, taking the beam to the chest while retaliating with a blast from her own blaster. Songbird screeched and flew away. Lifeline grinned at Skyfire.

"No, you better stay close to me." She replied.

Nightshade jumped out of cover and fired another arrow before running deeper into the forest. She transformed to beast mode and forced herself to ignore the pain in her wing as she flew low to the ground. Songbird powerlinked with her to give her some much needed energy to make the trip.

"You're not getting away!" Skyfire shouted and began to transform, but Lifeline whacked her in the head with her gun. "What the hell, Lifeline?"

"Don't give me that! Did you forget about the dangers of flying in your condition?" She growled. "You'll explode faster than a faulty diode!"

Skyfire sighed and holstered her cannon. "What do we do now, then? Run after her?"

"We don't have any other choice. If she gets to the panel before us, this mission's lost." Lifeline shrugged.

Skyfire looked at the still smoking spot on Lifeline's chest where she was hit by Songbird. "You're hurt."

"It's nothing. A superficial wound." The medic said.

"But-"

"Skyfire, undo concern for women also breeds contempt from them." Lifeline replied and changed into her vehicle mode. "Now come on. We're losing daylight."

Lifeline drove off into the forest, leaving Skyfire to sigh before running after her.

XXXXXX

Nightshade forced herself to fly all the way to the panel's location. It led her to the edge of the forest, where the trees gave way to a rocky landscape full of rock formations and a steep cliff face. She transformed and let Songbird separate from her.

"Is this the place?" She asked.

"Yes, mistress." Songbird nodded. "Right on that small cliff near the anvil shaped boulder. I think it's buried in the rock."

Nightshade climbed her way up the Cliffside and ran her scanner along the surface. The device indicated that the panel was definitely buried deep in the stone, subject to the elements that erected the pillars. Standing over the spot, she nodded to Songbird, who transformed into her weapon mode and plugged into her arm. Channeling the power of her Minicon, Nightshade fired a powerful beam into the rock, keeping it centered on a single spot. She burned through the stone and didn't stop until she could see the panel inside. Nightshade cut the beam off and picked up the stasis panel, dusting it off.

"Mission accomplished." Nightshade smirked.

Her victory was ruined when an energy blast slammed into the cliff under her. She scrambled back before she could get dragged down in the landslide, but the emerald green form of Skyfire leapt over the edge and slammed into her, knocking her to the ground. Nightshade kicked her off and got to her feet. She noticed that her hand was empty and looked down to see that the panel was gone!

Skyfire saw the panel lying behind her and smirked at Nightshade. "Looks like you dropped the ball, Nightshade. Not your proudest moment, huh?"

"Shut up, you cur!" Nightshade growled, drawing her swords. Skyfire summoned her bayonets and got ready.

A cool breeze washed over them as they waited for the right moment to attack. They were still as statues as they waited and waited, not even twitching. When the faint sound of a rock hitting the ground echoed throughout the plain, Skyfire charged forward.

Nightshade blocked her opening slash and spun around her follow up attack. Skyfire stabbed her blades upward and left a faint scratch on Nightshade's chest before jumping back to avoid the sword thrust at her chest. All Seekers were trained in bladed combat, which Nightshade was familiar with having worked alongside Seekers of her own, so she countered Skyfire's attacks easily.

But Skyfire knew this too. When Nightshade leapt at her intending to behead her with a double bladed strike, Skyfire did the unthinkable and ran at her. She used her bayonets to force Nightshade's swords apart to leave her open to a strong headbutt to the face that made Nightshade stagger back. The Con fell to one knee clutching her face as a crack laced across one of her optic lens. Nightshade felt cold fury as she saw a crack run across her vision.

"I'm going to make your death nice and slow, you little harlot." She hissed.

"You have to catch me first." Skyfire rolled her shoulders. "You may be good, Nightshade, but I've been known to shatter expectations."

Nightshade growled and charged into Skyfire, leaping up and slamming a knee into her face. They both went flying off the cliff and crashed to the ground. Skyfire got to her feet, but was suddenly attacked by Songbird, who started shooting at her from the air. Seeing her distracted, Nightshade took out Gandiva and fired an arrow. Skyfire was able to dodge the arrow, but the explosion it caused blasted her off her feet and onto her side.

"Scrap that hurt." She grunted, rubbing her left arm that took the brunt of the explosion.

Nightshade walked up to her and pointed a sword at her face. "That's the problem with you Seekers. You think you're so tough even after getting beat down. Surrender now and I won't tell everyone how I kicked your ass ten different ways."

Skyfire chuckled and gave her the finger. "Get fragged."

Nightshade scowled and pulled the string back, but two laser blasts hit her in the back. She fell over and spun around to face her attacker-Lifeline.

"Skyfire!"

"Lifeline?" Skyfire gaped. "I told you to hang back!"

"You good for nothing glitch!" Nightshade powerlinked with Songbird once again and pointed her targetmaster at the medic. Skyfire jumped up and grabbed her, pulling her down to keep her from shooting.

"Grab the panel!" Skyfire yelled.

As Lifeline made a run for the tiny object, Nightshade pulled her arm free and slammed her fist down on Skyfire's head repeatedly. The Autobot flyer maintained a strong hold on the Con, but her strong punches began taking its toll on her cranium. Her sharp fingers dug into her head and visor, almost blinding her.

Seeing Lifeline get closer to the panel, Nightshade punched Skyfire hard enough to push her back and gain some freedom to fire her pistol into her shoulder. Skyfire's shoulder exploded painfully in a shower of sparks and energon as she fell back in pain, still weakly holding onto her. Songbird detached from Nightshade's arm to scratch at Skyfire's face to get her off.

Nightshade got to her feet and pointed Gandiva at Lifeline. Skyfire saw her let the arrow loose and smacked Songbird out of the way to jump up. She activated her damaged thrusters and flew up as high as she could. Lifeline, stuck between a rock and certain death, knew that this was it for her.

Nightshade smiled as she saw both Autobots become engulfed in a plume of white flames and energy that boomed like thunder. She spat out a wad of energon and limped over to the panel. Picking it up, she scooped Songbird into her arms and called the Nemesis.

"This is Nightshade, send me a ground bridge." She called, looking at the column of thick smoke rising into the air. "I have what I came here for."

XXXXXX

'I need to stop waking up like this.'

That was Skyfire's first thought as she woke up after falling unconscious for the second time that day. It was high noon now, and the sky was a bright blue devoid of clouds. Her body was numb once again, but still operational, so that was good at least. Save for the lack of a right arm, and leg…and wing. Yeah, she was in bad shape. She tried to move, but she couldn't even feel her remaining limbs. What the hell?

"I disconnected the neural pathways to your limbs so you can't move." Lifeline's subdued voice told her. "So don't bother."

But she was still able to move her head, and she craned her neck to see Lifeline sitting by a tree. She had some badly burnt armor in some places, but nothing serious. She looked okay, save for her expression.

"What'd you go and do that for?" Skyfire asked weakly.

"To keep you from doing something stupid again. Like jumping in front of an arrow that blows holes through mountains." Lifeline growled. "What's wrong with you? You could've been killed!"

"But it would've been totally worth it." She chuckled.

"No, it wouldn't. We've lost the panel and you almost died."

Flashpoint stared at her, her mouth hanging open and grabbed her head in frustration, growling and grumbling. Skyfire watched her lose her composure for a few minutes before finally calming down.

"You done rage quitting, Lifeline?" He asked. Flashpoint just sat by the tree, head buried in her knees. "Lifeline?"

"Why?" She asked softly.

"Why what?"

"Why are you so interested in me? I'm not all that pretty, so don't try that excuse with me. I'm not some second coming of Elita-1! I can't compare to any of the others on my team and I'm certainly no famous medic like Ratchet or Pharma!"

"Because I have a thing for femmes who can put me in my place." Skyfire answered. "Seriously, that strict, authoritarian thing you got going on is hot."

Flashpoint shook her head. "You're an idiot, Skyfire."

"And you're gorgeous, Flashpoint." She replied.

She couldn't keep the smile off her face when she called the Ark. "Ratchet, we need a ground bridge."

XXXXXX

Ratchet, Sparkplug and Comettor stood at the ground bridge as Skyfire and Lifeline entered the room.

"You two look like scrap." Comettor said.

"Nice to see you two, little bugger." Skyfire grumbled.

"Lifeline, take Skyfire to the medibay. I'll be with you shortly." Ratchet sighed. As the two Autobots left the room, Ratchet turned to Sparkplug. "Any word from Bulkhead and Annie?"

"Nothing yet. I'll try calling Annie up-" Sparkplug was interrupted by Bulkhead's panicked voice from the comm terminal.

" _Sparkplug, get us back to the Ark! NOW!"_ Bulkhead roared.

"Bulkhead?" Ratchet ran over to the terminal. "What happened?"

" _JUST BRIDGE US OUT OF HERE! ANNIE'S HURT!"_

Ratchet quickly changed the coordinates on the ground bridge and fired it up. A tense few moments passed when they saw Bulkhead and the damaged Enyo flying out of the portal, crashing to the floor. Those present stared in horror when they saw the smoking hole in Bulkhead's back and blood leaking from Enyo's ruptured cockpit.

"No…" Ratchet gasped.


	29. Hurt

Chapter 29-Hurt

Megatron exited the ground bridge and entered a deep canyon bordering a large mountain with a small forest along the left side. Both sides of the canyon sported large rock formations that looked kind of like animals. This region was named "Black Horse" for the tribal chief who led a massive battle against Britannian colonists, and what followed after was a slaughter on both sides.

Leader-1 had detected a faint, encoded transmission in the area. Considering this was also where a deposit of energon was located, Megatron knew this was no coincidence and went to investigate himself after sending Nightshade out on her mission. Honestly, he wasn't expecting to find anything, but it didn't hurt to be thorough. But he wasn't expecting to hear the sound of wings.

Looking up, he saw three large robotic insects flying around above him haphazardly. When they spotted him, they flew to the ground and transformed to their bipedal modes. These were insecticon alphas, genetically altered by Shockwave no doubt. They were Venom, Barrage and Chop Shop.

"This is a welcome surprise." Megatron smiled. "To think that three insecticons would find their way so far from Cybertron. Shockwave's doing no doubt."

"We live to serve you, Lord Megatron." The insecticons intoned. Megatron looked around the arid landscape.

"I thought you insecticons never travel alone. Where is the rest of your hive?"

"Gone, my lord." Barrage hissed. "We were attacked by a femme aided by humans, a rogue who wielded great power. She overpowered us and the humans captured a third of the hive before we were forced to flee."

"We were then attacked by that traitorous witch Airachnid while we were hibernating and she somehow took control of the rest of the hive. We alone escaped her influence." Venom said.

"That explains the insecticons Flamewar sent after us." Megatron muttered. "If you were here all this time, then why haven't you made any attempts to contact us?"

"We didn't know you were on this planet, my lord, otherwise we would've tried that already." Venom replied. "It's just that those humans have been hunting us for so long."

"And their weapons hurt." Chop Shop said.

"Quiet your groveling." Megatron growled, making them recoil. "Who here is the strongest among you?"

"I am the strongest alpha here, my lord." Barrage said, standing up. "But we insecticons are stronger together."

"Then I have a job for all of you, then." Megatron said. "I want you to retrieve something for me, and eliminate anyone who gets in your way!"

XXXXXX

At the Ark, the Autobots were already mobilizing for the stasis panels. Optimus had just sent out Rodimus and Moonracer with Kevin and Penny, and Skyfire and Lifeline after them.

"Bulkhead, you and Annie will search for the third panel." Optimus told them.

"You two will be heading for the equator." Ratchet said.

"We're heading to the hottest place in the western hemisphere? Oh boy, I'm gonna sweat like a pig in that humidity." Annie groaned. Bulkhead chuckled and picked her up.

"Don't worry, Annie. Just slap on some sunscreen and bug repellant and you're all set." He said. He lifted her up to the Enyo's cockpit, where she climbed in and secured herself in the seat. "Hope your talos has air conditioning."

"Don't worry, the torrential downpour will make up for the heat." Annie quipped.

Ratchet activated the ground bridge and the two stepped of the archway ready to depart. Optimus saw them of with some parting words.

"Be on your guard, you two." Optimus warned. Bulkhead nodded and he followed Annie into the portal.

XXXXXX

The coordinates they were sent to landed them at the foot of a volcano near the southernmost region of Azteca, smack dab in the middle of the equatorial region. Bulkhead took one step into the thick, humid air and whistled as he got his first experience of equatorial climates.

"Whoo, this place is hot!" Bulkhead looked around. "I'm made of metal and I can still feel myself sweating."

"That's Azteca, Bulk. It's in the 70s to 90s all year round in this place." Annie grinned. "Man, I wish I could breathe in all that heavy, ash laden air but I'm all cooped up in my nice, air conditioned talos. Ain't that a damn shame?"

Bulkhead shot her a deadpan glare. "Yeah, it is. Now if you're done gloating about your fancy toy, can you run a scan of the area? I can't make heads or tails of this place."

"Yeah, it's easy to get lost around here. At least we don't have to worry about getting stung by poisonous insects or something?"

"That, and being eaten by those metal eating plants you told me about." Bulkhead grumbled.

'Oh yeah, I did tell him that, didn't I?' Annie thought with a naughty grin. She meant it as a joke, but he took it seriously.

She pressed a button on her computer panel and began a grid scan of the local area. She got some results back immediately, but they weren't exactly what she wanted. "I'm not getting anything on the radar, Bulk. I don't think the panel's here."

"What do you mean? We're right on top of the coordinates." He said.

Annie moved forward, but her talos stepped on a gas pocket that exploded a hot geyser in her talos's face. She stumbled back in surprise, but Bulkhead caught her.

"Let's figure this out before you step on a magma pocket or something." Bulkhead said. "Bulkhead to base, do you copy?"

" _Reading you loud and clear, Bulkhead."_ Sparkplug replied over the comm.

"Sparkplug! You're back!" Annie smiled. "How are you feeling?"

"A little sluggish, but better than before. Ratchet's working on the others, so I'm your caretaker for now." Sparkplug said. "So what's the problem?"

"We need to reconfirm coordinates. We're on site, but the panel's not here." Bulkhead said.

" _Hold on,"_ Sparkplug went silent as he checked the data. _"You're definitely in the right place. In fact, you guys should've seen it by now."_

Bulkhead gave a deep grumble. "Well the damn thing's not here. I hope it's not floating in a lava flow or something. That'd just be out luck."

"Lava flow…" Annie muttered and looked down at the deep canyons of cooled lava they stood in. "Bulk, I think you're onto something."

"I am?" Bulkhead blinked.

"Yeah, maybe the panel was here, but I got washed away in a lava flow when this volcano erupted all those years ago. The Minicons probably only got a lock on its general location, not its specific coordinates." Annie pointed down the slope with her mecha's arm. "If we follow the rivers of cooled magma, we might find the panel."

"That's my girl!" Bulkhead laughed. "I knew you'd be the brains of this operation!"

He gave Enyo a hard pat on the back, almost knocking it over. "Hey, watch it!"

"Sorry."

XXXXXX

On the other side of the volcano, Barrage, Venom and Chop Shop emerged from the ground bridge into the volcanic region. Barrage studied the hellish landscape before him and took a deep breath.

"This planet is not like Cybertron." Chop Shop growled in a voice like clashing needles. "Everything here is soft and easy to break. The weather, the climate, the noises, it's all so much. It's a wonder this world hasn't destroyed itself already."

"Focus on the mission. We are here for one thing and one thing only." Barrage said gruffly. "Now divide, and do not hesitate to conquer."

The three insecticons transformed into their insectoid beast modes and flew off in different directions, following the scent of the Autobot and his human. The hunt was on, and woe to any poor soul, man or beast, who got in their way.

XXXXXX

Annie kept her eyes forward as she and Bulkhead walked down the slope of the volcano. The sounds of wildlife could be heard all around them, and the dense vegetation made it hard to see farther than her eyes could see. It was the perfect opportunity for an ambush.

"You doing okay there, Annie?" Bulkhead asked.

"Yeah, just a little tense." She answered, looking around at the thick trees just a foot away from them. The rainforest was a hard place to traverse, and little to no one lived this far into the dense vegetation, and yet she couldn't shake that unsettling feeling of eyes on her. "I don't know why, but I feel like we're being stalked."

"Ah don't worry about it. You're probably still running on that high from all the excitement on Luna." Bulkhead said. "Just take deep breathes and calm down or else you'll be jumping at every shadow."

Annie smiled and followed his advice. She loved it when Bulkhead used his past battlefield experience like a war veteran. It made her feel cool to hang out with a seasoned pro like him. But her calm was interrupted by something popping up on her audio arrays. Bulkhead heard it as well.

"What is that?" Annie asked.

"Buzzing," Bulkhead changed his arm into his blaster and stepped closer to Annie. "Watch the skies, I think we're about to get some company."

His caution was rewarded with a green and white blur jumping down on them from the sky, slamming into Bulkhead and knocking him into the hardened magma. Annie didn't bother questioning why there was a giant rhinoceros beetle here; she only opened fire on it with her beam cannons. The beams only grazed the beetle, and it fought back by spinning around and slamming its horn into Enyo's side. The beetle then transformed into a green and white mech as large as Bulkhead.

"An Insecticon, great." Bulkhead grunted. "I thought you bugs jumped ship with Flamewar."

"Flamewar and her freakish consort hold no sway over us alphas. We are the strongest of our race, the apex predators." The Insecticon said.

"Enough bragging and tell us who the hell are you." Annie demanded.

"I am Barrage, an alpha under the command of Lord Megatron." Barrage growled and looked at Annie like a piece of meat. "And I know you two. The little girl who challenged my king, and a washed up Wrecker out of his field."

"Watch it bug!" Bulkhead charged at Barrage and threw his wrecking ball arm at Barrage's face.

Barrage took the powerful blow with little damage and dug his claws into the Autobot's chest, leaving behind a deep gash in his chest plate. Annie came up from the rear and slashed her beam saber along his back, the energy blade easily cutting through his armor and damaging the circuitry underneath. This unexpected pain made Barrage snarl and kick Enyo in the chest and caught Bulkhead's fist in his claws.

"You're strong," Barrage slashed his claws into Bulkhead's shoulder. "But you're too slow!"

"Tell me something I don't know!" Bulkhead head butted Barrage in the face to knock him back and Annie fired three missiles at the Insecticon's head, sending him crashing onto his back.

"And stay down." Annie spat. She turned to Bulkhead. "You okay?"

"Yeah," Bulkhead wiped some energon bleeding from his mouth and ignored the stinging in his shoulder clavicle. "Let's move. If there's one Insecticon here, then more are nearby. They like to travel in groups."

Annie gave the down Insecticon one last glance before following Bulkhead, neither of them noticing the little puddles of energon the Autobot was leaking.

XXXXXX

After a few minutes of walking, they final found the panel stuck in a small cave formed from hardened magma. Bulkhead stood guard at the entrance while Annie cut through the hard rock with her beam saber to grab the panel.

"Wow, this thing's completely unscathed." Annie observed.

"These panels survived a fall from orbit. A little dip in some lava will only make it a little warm to the touch." Bulkhead remarked. He took a step forward before stumbling a bit and holding his head with a groan.

"Whoa, what's wrong?" Annie asked, suddenly scared for her friend.

"Just a bit woozy. That bug might've hit me harder than I thought." Bulkhead said. "Come on, let's call for a ground bridge."

"Sparkplug, this is Annie. We've got the panel. Can you bridge us out of here?" Annie called in. There was no response from the Minicon, even after she tried again. "Scrap, I can't get him on the line."

"Might be the volcanic activity screwing with our comm." Bulkhead frowned.

"We might get a better reception at the caldera. It's high enough." Annie suggested.

They went back the way they came out of the cave, but as soon as they left it, they were attacked by a barrage of electrical bolts being fired from the jungle. Annie managed to avoid getting hit, but Bulkhead stumbled and took a couple of blasts to his chest. Annie jumped in front of him and fired back with her beam cannons.

"Come on, you call that firepower?" A black and orange robot locust flew out of the tree canopy. "This is firepower!"

The Insecticon known as Chop Shop landed on the ground and kicked Bulkhead in the chest with his back legs, hitting him with enough force to leave a visible dent in his chest plate and actually sent him flying nearly two feet back into the cave. Chop Shop turned his attention to Annie and started rubbing his hind legs together to create an intense sonic vibration that filled the air like nails on a chalkboard.

"Ahhh!" Annie covered her ears as the vibrations affected her even in the safety of Enyo's cockpit. The vibrations even started messing up her unit's systems, and Annie couldn't get her machine to move.

Chop Shop cackled madly as he continued his assault. His sonic vibrations were agonizing enough on Cybertronians, but devastating to organics, as those exposed to the vibrations for too long would often have their ear drums ruptured, or suffer from severe internal injuries. Fortunately for Annie, Chop Shop didn't get the chance to take her out as Bulkhead slammed into him. The Insecticon hit the ground and switched forms mid-fall, shifting both hands into concussion blasters and shooting at him. Bulkhead fired back with his own blaster. Both mechs hit each other with laser bursts that scorched their armor and burned their bodies and it would've gotten physical had Bulkhead not fired a blast at a gas pocket under Chop Shop's feet, dousing his face in gas.

Chop Shop flinched back from the hot gas and this distraction allowed Bulkhead to run in close and punch the alpha in the head with his wrecking ball. That one blow shattered Chop Shop's red visor and another punch nearly caved in his head, knocking him offline. Bulkhead waited for the bug to crumple to the ground before running over to Annie.

"Annie, are you okay?"

"Ugh," Annie groaned, shaking her head. Her ears were ringing and her vision swam from her headache. "Don't yell, Bulk, my head's killing me. I'm fine, but my talos is down and needs a system reboot. It won't take long."

"Don't worry, out pest won't be waking up any time soon." He assured her.

But the universe liked proving its occupants wrong at the most inopportune times. A green figure flew out of the canopy and landed next to Bulkhead. The mostly green and brownish gold Insecticon known as Venom quickly switched to beast mode, a giant emerald cicada, and stabbed his stinger into Bulkhead's side. Venom dragged the stinger through Bulkhead's abdomen, leaving a deep gash in his armor before leaping back and flying away, cackling.

"Bulkhead!" Annie opened her cockpit and ran over to the Autobot, who fell to one knee clutching his wound. "Oh my god, are you okay?"

"Y-yeah, this is just a mesh wound." Bulkhead hissed. "Hurts like a glitch though."

Annie looked at the wound. It was like a knife had carved into Bulkhead's torso, ripping into his thick armor and exposed the vulnerable circuitry within. Ironically, the heated stinger had cauterized the wound, welding together the ruptured power lines that should've been leaking energon profusely.

Bulkhead saw Annie's worried expression and poked her in the chest with a large finger. "Don't start getting teary eyed on me, Annie. This is nothing new. People get hurt in battles all the time."

"But if my talos had been working, I could've…" Annie bit her lip.

"As I said, this is nothing serious. My repair systems can keep me going until we get back to Ratchet." Bulkhead handed her the stasis panel. "Now let's get back to the volcano before we run into a giant man-eating Venus fly-trap or something."

Annie giggled. "Okay."

Annie ran back to her talos and climbed back into the cockpit, starting the mecha back up again. Bulkhead got back to his feet and marched back up the volcano, unaware of the poison cycling through his system right now.

XXXXXX

"Have a nice sleep?"

Barrage groaned as he came back online, his eyes blinking on to see the face of his much hated leader, Venom. He pushed him away and got to his feet, rubbing at the burns on his face.

"I don't know what's sad. That you got laid out by a retired Wrecker and his human harlot," Chop Shop chuckled, wincing a bit at the throbbing dent on his head. "Or that I did more damage to him than you."

"Like you did any better you good for nothing-" Barrage snarled, but Venom broke them apart.

"Enough, both of you. We don't have time for this." Venom said. "Our prey is weak, and is heading to the highest point in the area to escape the signal interference. We have them cornered and outnumbered."

"So are you up for the killing shot, Barrage?" Chop Shop asked.

Barrage narrowed his ruby-red eyes and stood to his full height over the suddenly nervous shorter Chop Shop. "The Wrecker left me alive. The first and last mistake he will ever make with me."

XXXXXX

The side effects of Venom's poison didn't take long to start ailing Bulkhead. Not long after Venom's surprise attack, Bulkhead started feeling weak and dizzy. His vision was starting to become blurry, and his hearing dulled a bit, like he was trying to hear underwater. It got to the point where he was having trouble standing on his own and was fighting to stay conscious.

"Come on, Bulk, stay with me!" Annie urged. She had Enyo help Bulkhead along, using her suit's flight function to slightly drag Bulkhead up the hill.

"I…don't know what's wrong with me." Bulkhead groaned. He was really beginning to regret his weight right now. His legs could barely hold him up. "I was fine just a few minutes ago."

"It was that Insecticon." Annie said, pushing her talos to its limits just trying to get the Autobot up to the caldera. They were close now. "He must've done something to you when he cut you."

"Figures. I get scratched once and I crash harder than a 90-bit computer." Bulkhead said and chuckled.

"What?"

"Here I am, thinking I've got to protect you from the Cons, and instead you've been carrying my can this whole mission. Funny how life works like that."

Annie smiled, though he couldn't see it. "Shut up and save your strength. We're almost to the top."

"I'm serious. You, along with Darren and Gina, even Kevin and Penny; you've all grown so much. Makes a mech like me proud to be fighting alongside cool kids like you."

"Seriously, Bulk, shut up. You're making me blush and I don't like blushing." She said. She turned Enyo's head towards her partner and saw Bulkhead's shutters fluttering close. "Don't konk out on me!"

She had Enyo give him a hard slap on the back of his head to wake him and it worked. "Ow!"

"Look up there," Annie pointed at the top of the volcano. They were close enough to feel the heat from the caldera and see smoke rising from its interior. "We're close, Bulkhead, just keep your head in the game. The mission comes first, right?"

"Yeah…the mission comes first." Bulkhead nodded and grinned. "No bot left behind."

Annie nodded and held out her (Enyo's) hand. "You can do this. For the Minicon. For me."

'For Annie.' Bulkhead thought and grabbed offered hand, allowing Annie to lead him the rest of the way. It was a bit of a hassle climbing those last few feet, but eventually they made it to the mouth of the volcano. They nearly rejoiced, but that was cut short when a chilling laugh filled the air.

"Welcome Autobots." Venom said, standing on top of the cooled section of magma. "So glad you could join us."

Bulkhead and Annie stood back to back as Chop Shop and Barrage surrounded them. Bulkhead's vision got worse and he shook his head to clear it.

"Feeling sluggish? That's a little side effect of the neurotoxins I injected into you when I stabbed you." Venom tapped his stinger. "It's a lethal concoction. Affects your motor and cognitive functions. Messes with your vision, makes it hard to think. And after half an hour, death is the only reality you'll experience."

"Unless you can get proper treatment." Barrage grinned. "And you need to call for help first."

"And we ain't gonna let you do that." Chop Shop said. "Unless you give us the Minicon."

"Go to hell!" Bulkhead shouted.

"Have it your way. Barrage, Chop Shop, the Wrecker's mine!" Venom howled, signaling the start of the battle.

The three Insecticons transformed to beast mode and charged at their prey. Venom singled out Bulkhead and started bombarding him with hard and fast punches that kept the Autobot on the defensive. Bulkhead took his punches and swung his wrecking ball at Venom, smashing it against his face. Venom was knocked into a spin, only to spin around and draw an energo-scythe, slashing Bulkhead against the chest. The cut hurt more than it should've and Bulkhead bit back a cry of pain.

"Did I mention my toxins also increase your sensitivity to the point that a shallow cut feels like a brand on your laser core?" Venom's mouth plate slid back to reveal a grinning maw of sharp teeth. "No? Too bad."

In the skies above them, Annie was fighting Chop Shop and Barrage. She had her hands full keeping both mechs from swarming her at once, firing her beam rifle to stave them off long enough to lock her missiles onto them.

"We're coming for you little girl!" Chop Shop's face suddenly appeared in her screen, making her jump. She fired two missiles at his upper torso and he flew back with his head covered in smoke and flames. Barrage lunged at her from behind with an energo-sword and nearly cut Enyo in two had she not weaved around the blade and slammed her fist into the side of his head.

'I can't fight both of them at once!' Annie thought, torn between watching Bulkhead and her two opponents. Then Barrage appeared again, firing laser blasts from two cannons on his insect mode's back like a flying artillery unit. 'Shit!'

Enyo raised its arm to fire its beam cannons but Chop Shop, in his stag beetle form, pounced on her from below, his pincers clamping down on her arm and snapping it off like it was plastic. Annie had no time to survey the damage to her talos as Barrage descended upon her into robot mode and kicked Enyo in the chest, sending it crashing back into the caldera with a loud crash.

"Annie!" Bulkhead shouted and ran to help his partner, only for Venom to slam his knee into his face to knock him back.

"You should worry about yourself Wrecker!" Venom growled, brandishing his scythe like a robotic grim reaper.

Bulkhead tried to fire his blaster, but Venom just kicked his arm away and slammed the staff of his scythe into his head, sending him to his knees. Venom spat on Bulkhead in distaste.

"Look at you. You can't even stand and you want to help the human? Where's your sense of self-preservation?" Venom held out his hand. "Give me the panel, and this suffering will end quickly."

Bulkhead glared up at him before grabbing the outstretched arm and jumped up, slamming his head into Venom's face. Then he snatched the scythe from Venom's grasp and slashed it down on the Insecticon.

"Raaahhh!" Venom cried as his left arm was severed.

"Wreckers never surrender!" Bulkhead yelled.

With Annie, she was slowly starting to get a handle on her own battle. She had already blinded Chop Shop by shooting out his eyes and them stabbed her beam saber into his torso, impaling his T-cog and fuel pup in one motion. Barrage kicked her talos in the face, but he took a beam to the chest, blasting apart his chest plate in a fiery burst. He stumbled back at Enyo stood up and stomped a large foot on Chop Shop's chest.

"Stay down, bug!" Annie growled. Her helmet was off, the protective glass cracked and a thin cut on her forehead from a piece of glass.

Chop Shop snarled and leapt up to bite at her. Annie leapt back and slashed her beam saber across his neck, severing vital neck cables before kicking him away.

"Now that was satisfying." Annie said as she watched Chop Shop writhe on the ground, bleeding fluids and sparks. She looked around for Barrage. "Now where's…no, Bulkhead!"

Bulkhead was in the process of beating Venom in the face with his non-weapon hand when he heard Annie cry out his name. He turned to see Barrage throwing Chop Shop's spear at his back. The green Autobot knew that in his condition, he wouldn't be able to dodge in time, but that fear was replaced by something else. Enyo had thrown itself directly in the spear's path and Bulkhead's Spark stopped cold as he saw the spear sink into Enyo's chest, directly into its cockpit.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

The scream Bulkhead heard from Enyo's speakers was something he would never forget. It ended as quickly as it started and he saw the black talos fall onto its back, the spear sticking out of its chest.

"ANNIE!" Bulkhead's roar actually made Barrage step back in fear as the former Wrecker glared at him in pure hatred.

Barrage quickly suppressed his fear and savagely beat his fists against his damaged chest like an animal. "Come at me, Autobot! You'll join her soon enough!"

Bulkhead snarled and threw Venom's beaten body at Barrage. Without a care for his "leader", Barrage kicked Venom aside, only to find Bulkhead charging at him like a mad bull with Venom's scythe in hand. Startled, Barrage tried to fire his concussion blasters, but Bulkhead was already too close; a single slash separated Barrage's gun arm from his body and another downward slash would've him in two had he not moved a few inches back. That split second move helped him avoid death as the energo-scythe dug into his shoulder, shaving off a section of his torso and damaging multiple fuel lines in the process. He hit the ground in pieces as Bulkhead turned away from him and went into stasis lock.

Bulkhead ran over to the still motionless Enyo and pulled the spear from its cockpit. Ignoring the blood coating the blade, he tossed it aside and called the Ark. "Sparkplug, get us out of here, now!"

" _Bulkhead?"_ Ratchet replied. " _What's wrong?"_

"JUST BRIDGE US OUT OF HERE! ANNIE'S HURT!"

Seconds later, a ground bridge appeared and Bulkhead gently picked up Enyo and started limping towards the portal. "Come on, girl, stay with me. We're getting out of this together."

Venom weakly lifted his head and glared at the two Autobots that had utterly humiliated him. He pushed himself upright with his one arm and pointed it at Bulkhead, shifting it into an electro-cannon.

"No…survivors…" He spat and fired a charge electrical beam at the Autobot. The beam hit Bulkhead in the middle of his back and sent him and Annie flying into the ground bridge as it disappeared.

XXXXXX

Bulkhead and Enyo flew out of the portal and crashed onto the floor of the shuttle bay before a horrified Ratchet and Sparkplug. Ratchet ran over to his friends and saw the smoking hole in Bulkhead's back and the blood leaking from Enyo's ruptured cockpit.

"No…" He whispered in horror.


	30. Pain

Chapter 30-Pain

"Excalibur." Gina breathed as she held the mythical sword in her hands. It felt heavy, like a sword its size would be, though Darren insisted that it felt light as a metal pipe when he held it, and she had to wear gloves after learning it burned at the touch when held by someone other than its intended wielder. Still, the fact that she was holding a sword once thought to be just a myth was something she was still struggling to wrap her mind around this discovery. "Just when I think I couldn't love you anymore, Darren."

"You're making me blush." Darren grinned.

While they took a breather from their fight against Skyquake, Sara stood guard for them while Optimus and Sunstreaker studied Skyquake's body. Sunstreaker picked up the Con's severed head and tossed it from hand to hand, surprised at how clean the cut was.

"How the hell did they manage to kill this guy by themselves?" Sunstreaker asked in complete shock. He didn't think that some tiny fleshy would be able to beat a Decepticon with just their bare hands. Even more advanced aliens needed heavy weaponry to fight off a cybertronian (which the Galactic Coalition had in spades just for that reason). "They don't even have any energy weapons on them!"

"I told you, Sunstreaker, do not underestimate these humans. They may be primitive by our standards, but they're resourceful, and can prove dangerous if given the chance. Something Megatron is starting to realize." Optimus said. He walked over to the children and knelt down next to them. "How are you two feeling?"

"Better, now that we've had some rest. Can't say the same for our talos, though." Gina said. "I'm surprised I lasted that long against Skyquake by myself. For a moment there, I thought I was done for."

"You can chalk that up to your amazing survival instincts…and your inhuman powers." Darren pecked her cheek and looked at Excalibur. "And we won thanks to this little souvenir."

Optimus's eyes focused on the long sword Darren held, seeing it humming it power. "Darren, where did you-"

" _Optimus come in!"_ Sparkplug's panicked voice startled Optimus before he replied.

"Sparkplug, I'm here. What's wrong?"

" _It's Bulkhead and Annie! They're back from their mission but they're seriously hurt! You guys need to get back to the Ark right now!"_

XXXXXX

When the teams returned to the Ark, they saw a ship in chaos. Ratchet was standing over Bulkhead's still body, pumping thousands of volts of electricity into him to revive him. Darren looked at the Enyo lying on the floor and was horrified to see the cockpit torn open and bloodstained.

"Annie!" Darren cried out and ran forward, but Sparkplug and High Wire held him back.

"Ratchet, what happened?" Optimus asked.

"Bulkhead and Annie were ambushed by insecticon alphas. Bulkhead's suffering from a neurotoxin that's wreaking havoc on his systems and I had Lifeline take Annie to the medibay." Ratchet quickly explained. After one more shock, he checked Bulkhead's vitals and saw that they were beeping, but very weak. Grimacing, he stood up and turned to Prime. "Optimus, help me with him."

Optimus helped Ratchet pick up their fellow Autobot and slowly dragged Bulkhead's limp form out of the room. Darren blinked back tears as he started worrying about his sister. "This is a nightmare. If I hadn't let her go alone…"

"It wouldn't have made a difference." Sparkplug said kindly. "Barrage and Venom already did a lot of damage to them after they reached the panel."

"Barrage?" Gina exclaimed in shock. "But Ratchet and Bumblebee left him buried inside a cave!"

"Well he got out, and found himself some friends." High Wire said and shook his head. "This doesn't bode well for anybody."

Gina looked over at Darren, who was quiet, and took his hand in hers. "Darren, they'll make it."

"For once, Gina, I don't think they will." Darren said, tears falling down his face. Gina held him tightly as he cried and prayed for their friends' recovery.

XXXXXX

"Four Minicons, each in different parts of the world," Megatron growled, glaring at the Decepticons lined up before him. "Four opportunities to get the upper hand, and only Nightshade has returned with something other than an excuse!"

The line-up of Cons (excluding Dreadwing) looked away in shame. Megatron was far from happy at how the operation went, and he was even more enraged at Skyquake's death. Megatron walked up the land and stood before Venom, who hadn't even healed from his fight against Bulkhead. Even still, Venom met Megatron's glare with unwavering eyes, confident in something Megatron did not know yet.

"What's your excuse, Venom?" Megatron sneered.

"None, my lord." Venom bowed his head. "But the green Autobot has been…terminated."

Megatron and the other Decepticons stared at him in shock at this declaration, before the warlord smiled. "Perhaps this day wasn't a complete loss after all."

"How can we be so sure of that, Lord Megatron?" Knockout asked, crossing his arms. "It has been a while since anyone's killed an Autobot."

"That's because an insecticon warrior has not been introduced onto the battlefield." Venom hissed.

"Please, it took three of you to fight a fat mech and a prepubescent girl in a battlesuit." Knockout snorted. "And from what I hear, one of you bugs got buried alive last year by a medic and a scout!"

Venom snarled at Knockout, but Megatron swiftly ended the argument with a sharp look. Megatron stepped up close to Venom to stare him right in the eyes to look for any sign of deceit. This was probably their first kill of an Autobot on this world, and he needed to be sure that it was a confirmed kill.

"Venom, are you absolutely sure that you killed the one called Bulkhead?" He questioned.

"Yes, my lord. I swear upon the Allspark." Venom said. "I saw the light die in his eyes when I struck him down."

XXXXXX

After stabilizing his condition, Ratchet placed Bulkhead in life support in the medibay, putting him in stasis lock. There were multiple tubes pumping fresh energon into his system while Longarm and Lifeline worked on fixing his external wounds. Optimus stared at the sleeping Autobot for a good thirty minutes as Ratchet finished his assessment.

"I've induced stasis lock, so he's resting now." Ratchet said. "I've also managed to repair some of his more severe injuries, though there was only so much I could do."

"How is he?" Optimus asked. Ratchet sighed.

"Bulkhead's suffered a complete system-wide shut down on a sub-micronic level. The neurotoxin has ravaged his body's repair system and severely damaged his neural net. I'm flushing it out of his system now, but I can't even begin to operate until he has regained some strength."

Optimus just sighed and glanced at the other side of the room where the humans were. Annie was in her own bed wrapped up in bandages and hooked up to a machine with a breathing mask over her face. Darren and Grindor hadn't left her side since they were allowed in, while their friends stood around them for support. Ratchet grimaced and looked at the blood still coating his large metal hands.

"I don't know who's worse off, Bulkhead or Annie." He said. "She barely avoided getting impaled by that spear, and she's lost a lot of blood by the time Bulkhead brought her back. Her wounds are…Optimus, she's not going to get out of this in one piece."

Optimus rubbed his nose and shook his head as Ratchet walked past him. "I'm going to the hospital with Debbie to get some blood packs for Annie's blood transfusion. Lifeline will oversee matters here."

"Understood." Prime said softly. "Be safe, old friend."

Seeing Ratchet leave the room, Gina have Darren's hand a squeeze before standing up and turned to Sara. "Watch over them for me, please?"

"I will, Ms. Gina." Sara nodded.

"Where are you going?" Sureshock asked.

"To help Ratchet and Debbie. I need some fresh air." Gina gave one last look at Annie's comatose form and ran after the medic. "Ratchet, wait up!"

XXXXXX

Back at Decepticon Headquarters, the Cons weren't nearly as ecstatic about the Autobot's death as they should be, mainly because the one who did the deed was milking it for all it's worth. The other troops were already getting tired of Venom's constant bragging, along with Chop Shop's unrelenting debasement of everyone who wasn't Megatron, and Barrage's general unlikability. Together their attitudes were causing a schism within the Decepticon ranks, so it wasn't really surprising that someone would finally get sick of them.

"You should have seen the look on the Wrecker's face as I shot him in the back." Venom laughed. He lumbered through the halls with Chop Shop and Barrage in tow. "The horror on his face as his victory was snatched away from him was gold!"

"We know, you've said it half a dozen times already." Barrage grumbled.

Chop Shop chuckled. "What's the matter? Grumpy that you didn't get to see the money shot? You had front row seats after all. Both of them!"

Barrage hissed in Chop Shop's cackling face, but Venom pushed him back. "There will be none of that. We Insecticons are apex predators, and as such, we do not have petty squabbles like those lower thugs lord Megatron employs."

"If by lower thugs," Demolishor stepped in front of them, arms crossed and posture straight and tall. "You don't mean bots like me, right?"

Venom stomped towards him until they were nose to nose. Their difference in height was very evident as Venom glared down at him. "What is it to you, soldier boy?"

"Don't act so superior because you killed one Autobot. You stupid bugs had been festering in your own filth for centuries while we were fighting on the front lines!" Demolishor said, not even flinching as he glared into Venom's eyes. "If there's one thing that pisses me off, it's cowards who take credit for things us stronger people have done with courage!"

"You primitive drone!" Venom backhanded Demolishor and sent him skidding down the hall. He charged at the general, jaws open and hissing. "I'll devour you whole!"

A flash of purple light appeared between them before Thundercracker and Skywarp appeared, their weapons trained on the insecticons.

"You don't attack one of our bots on our turf you stupid beetle!" Thundercracker growled.

Venom snarled as Chop Shop and Barrage joined his side, weapons ready. Demolishor and the two Seekers also got ready to fight. The barrels of their guns and blasters heated up, but before the first shot could be fired, a strict voice cut the confrontation short.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Everyone froze as Nightshade marched down the hall, standing between the two groups. They all lowered their weapons immediately lest they get blown apart by Gandiva. Venom stepped forward and bowed.

"Lieutenant, we were just-"

"Not a word, Venom. We don't have time to play alpha male amongst ourselves. Not when our ranks are still low." Nightshade said, her deadly gaze cowing the cocky Insecticon. "Take your Insecticons and head out to your designated patrol area. Demolishor, Thundercracker, Skywarp, back to your quarters and remain there for the rest of the day."

"What?" Demolishor exclaimed before he could stop himself. "But sir, we didn't-"

"Would you rather I stuff you all in the brig to tear each other apart?" She hissed. "Or maybe I should kill you all now. Put you down like animals, since you fools like to act like ones! Do as you are told, soldier!"

They all stiffened and saluted with a chorus of "Yes, lieutenant!" before scattering down the halls and vacating her immediate area. Nightshade vented sharply and rubbed the sides of her head to quell the growing headache in her processor.

"Impressive," Leader-1 said as he walked up to her. "You certainly live up to your beast mode's reputation."

"Shut up, Leader-1." She sighed.

"Where were you? I know you were damaged, but that dip in the CR Chamber shouldn't have taken that long." He inquired.

"I was checking up on Dreadwing. His brother's death is still effecting him and I'm trying to keep him sane." She said.

Leader-1 hummed. "How exactly?"

"How else? He talked, I listened." Nightshade scowled and stomped past him. "Now leave me alone. I'm tired and not in the mood for anyone's scrap."

XXXXXX

The ride to the Tranquility Hospital was a silent one. Debbie kept her hands tightly on Ratchet's steering wheel to simulate driving, though she looked pale and haggard. Gina sat next to her, not knowing what to say and also quiet. Ratchet had no idea what to really say to Debbie, knowing that this might be yet another strike against the Autobots on her score card. The last thing he wanted to do was set the elder Radcliffe off.

"Debbie, how's Annie?" Gina asked. Debbie's grip on the wheel tightened.

"Her condition's stabilized, thanks to Longarm and Lifeline, but she's lost a lot of blood. We need to get her a blood transfusion to replace the liters she's lost." Debbie bit her lip, trying not to cry. Wouldn't do for a crying nurse to go walking around the hospital. "But…even if she does make a full recovery, she won't be the same anymore."

"…I'm so sorry, Debbie." Ratchet said softly.

"It wasn't your fault. It's…" Debbie took a deep breath. "Let's just focus on getting the blood, okay?"

As they drove towards town, miles above the area, a lone insecticon was flying above the forest. Barrage had only flown near this area by chance, but as soon as he did, he caught the scent of the Autobot he had been dying to see…and maul to death.

"The medic…" Barrage growled. His sensors zeroed in on the scent and flew toward the unsuspecting humans. "I'm going to enjoy this!"

"Gina," Debbie said. "How are you and Darren?"

"Oh, um, we're doing fine. Darren's a bit shaken by Annie's condition, but we're both doing okay. I mean, I'm healthy as a horse." Gina smiled and flexed her muscles. "Superhuman physiology and all that."

Debbie smiled. The girl was always trying to relieve the tension in the worst moments. Looking at her now, she couldn't see the superhuman powers that lied within her. Sure, she looked taller and had had some bulk around her arms, but she was still the same girl she grew up with. Debbie had to admire Gina's strength. She was amazed at how the girl was able to remain the same after almost dying. It made her think of all the things she and the twins went through with the Autobots. Debbie was afraid of something like this happening, but as much as she wanted to take the kids away from all this, she knew it wouldn't change a thing. Both the Decepticons and OZ had them on radar, and there was no escaping that. Any hope of having normal lives for them went out the window the moment they found those Minicons.

"We're almost at the city limits." Ratchet said. "Just direct me to the hospital and we'll take care of-"

Ratchet grunted as the pavement behind him exploded, nearly tipping him over. Debbie and Gina were jostled a bit in their seats and the blonde inhuman looked out the window to see a giant emerald rhinoceros beetle flying towards them like a bird of prey.

"An Insecticon?" Gina yelled.

"Die Autobot!" Barrage fired electrical bolts from his long, curved horn, blasting holes into the road in a flurry of destructive attempts to kill Ratchet.

"I was worried about this when I heard about the Insecticons!" Ratchet said as he pushed himself to drive at full speed. "Barrage wants some payback."

"I thought we buried him inside a cave back in Europa!" Gina said.

"Well, it seems Megatron has dug him back out!"

Ratchet tried to lose Barrage, but the Insecticon was dead set on tearing him to pieces, easily matching Ratchet's speed and firing powerful blasts to at least disable him. Ratchet tried contacting the Ark, but couldn't get a response.

"Scrap, I can't reach the Ark. Something's jamming my comm!" He grunted.

"Barrage must be emitting EMP waves somehow!" Gina said.

Debbie screamed as a nearby tree was blasted to pieces and sprayed sharp pieces of wood against the window. When a laser bolt nearly scorched one of his tires, Ratchet knew he couldn't simply throw Barrage off his trail. "Gina, I need you to distract him!"

Debbie almost asked what Gina could do against a giant robot bug shooting lightning bolts at them, until she saw Gina's eyes glow a crystal blue as she leaned her upper body out the window. A distortion halo manifested around her head before whipping out and throwing half a dozen energy spheres at Barrage. They all detonated at once around the alpha, engulfing him in a cloud of blue flames.

"Oh my…" Debbie gasped at the destructive display of power. She had never seen an esper, not even Darren, do something this flashy. And Gina had this power on her at all times? Gina released a jagged bolt of energy with a chain of azure spheres blossoming along the length of it, warping and distorting everything they touched. It goes without saying that the noise they gave off was like hearing a dozen thunderclaps one after the other.

"Kraahh!" Barrage took the halo full force and the explosions made him crash into the road, further damaging the smooth asphalt and rolling along the ground with his audio sensors literally nothing but white noise. Ratchet used this chance to get the girls into town and gain some distance between them and their hunter.

XXXXXX

Ratchet didn't stop driving until they were deep inside the town, having drove all the way to the hospital. There Ratchet parked himself alongside the other ambulances and waited or Debbie to get the blood packets from the building.

"So we're clear for now." Ratchet sighed. His holomatter materialized, a middle aged man with short yellow hair and wrinkles on his face and hands dressed in a paramedic's uniform. He looked just as tired as the Autobot felt. "There's enough local cover for me to blend in and the radio waves should mask my signal."

"What do we do?" Gina asked. "And please don't tell me the plan is to just hide."

"I'm sorry, Gina, but there's little I can do without blowing my cover. Barrage is doing something to block my comm signal so I can't contact the Ark. We're on our own."

"Can't you use your emergency beacon?"

"Already did, but I don't know if the signal went through yet." He replied. This was the worst thing that could possibly happen to him. Barrage of all bots was hunting them down in broad daylight and he wasn't concerned at all about blowing their cover.

Thankfully, they didn't have to wait long before Debbie came back with the case of frozen blood packets. It seemed those credentials Ratchet forged for her had worked wonders. She ran over to Ratchet and got in as the holomatter vanished, allowing her into the front seat. She shut the door and held the case to her chest, looking a bit frazzled. "That was tense."

"Did it go okay?" Gina asked.

"It took some bad acting, but I got the blood." Debbie held up the case. "Those security clearance badges really saved my bacon. How are things here?"

"It seems he's lost our trail." Ratchet explained. "Now we just need to find a way to contact the others-"

A screeching howl filled the air as Barrage came falling from the sky in his beast mode. The giant beetle smashed through a small shop, sending debris flying everywhere as he fired his horn blaster without pause.

"Where are you doctor?" Barrage hissed, stomping along the ground in his search for the medic. "I'll find you, so there's no use hiding!"

It was bad luck that Barrage caught sight of the hospital and the ambulances parked in front of the ER driveway. People ran and screamed as he barreled through the street, smashing cars underfoot or tossing them aside with his horns as he fired his blaster at the parking lot. Debbie and Gina screamed as a bolt destroyed the ambulance near them.

"What's he doing?!" Debbie screamed.

"Process of elimination." Ratchet answered grimly. "Local rules of engagement don't apply to this beast. We need to move!"

Ratchet sped out of the lot, narrowly avoiding a blast that scorched his right side, blasting a hole in the section of the hospital behind him. Growling and snarling, Barrage gave chase, taking the bait as they went outside of town. Ratchet ignored the terrified screams of the humans as he made a hard left onto the road leading out of Tranquility. Gina looked back and saw Barrage gaining on them, running on all fours in some sick way of using his fear factor.

"He's getting closer!" Debbie said.

Ratchet inwardly cursed and gave a brief "sorry" to the girls before ejecting them from his seats. He transformed and spun around to land a punch in Barrage's face, grabbing his horn and slamming him into a tree.

"So you've finally gained a spine, eh medic?" Barrage grinned.

"You idiot, that are you doing? You've exposed yourself to the humans. That's against rules of engagement!" Ratchet yelled.

"I could care less about those little mud dolls you care for so much. The only rule of engagement is to kill before being killed." Barrage switched to bipedal form and cracked his knuckles. "Guess which one are you."

"I doubt Megatron would be happy about breach in _his_ protocol."

He'll forgive me when I bring him your head!" Barrage lunged at Ratchet, jaws exposed and teeth bloody from previous "meals". He lunged at Ratchet, but a burst of energy exploded against his side and knocked him to the ground. "Who dares?"

"I do!" Gina ran at him, summoning another halo effect. "Remember me?"

"Gina, no!" Ratchet yelled.

"Let her fight, doctor. I promise I'll make her death nice and slow." Barrage hissed.

Ratchet rammed into his back and they tumbled across the ground. Ratchet landed a solid punch on his jaw before Barrage threw him off and began wailing on him repeatedly. Gina was about to fire another halo effect when an energy blast hit Barrage in the chest and sent him sprawling onto his back. Gina turned to see Optimus, Wheeljack, Prowl and Bumblebee stepping out of a ground bridge with their weapons raised.

"Step away from our friends, Barrage." Optimus demanded.

"Go to hell, Prime!" Barrage roared. Even he knew he was at a disadvantage right now, but his pride would not allow him to turn tail and run. Instead, he went for the easiest target near him. "I'm not leaving until I've had my taste of human blood!"

Barrage's face plate slid apart to reveal his serrated teeth and he lunged for Gina and Debbie. Wheeljack was the first to intercept him, generating his energo-whip to wrap it tightly around his neck. Barrage was restrained, but he pushed himself forward, reaching out for the girls with every ounce of his strength. Wheeljack dug his feet into the ground, but the insecticon was too strong.

"Enough." Prime's voice was cold as he took out his battle axe and swung it at Barrage's neck.

Debbie flinched as the heated blade easily cut through wired sinew and metal, severing the insecticon's head in a gory spray of blue energon spewing from the stump. Barrage's head crashed to the ground, where it rolled to a stop before the girls as his body went limp and fell over.

"That was for Bulkhead and Annie." Wheeljack growled.

"Are you three alright?" Optimus asked.

"We're fine, Optimus." Ratchet leaned up against a tree to cool his systems down. That was more than enough fun for him for one day. How did you find us? Did you get my beacon?"

"You mean, before or after the breaking news story of a giant robo-beetle blowing up a hospital?" Bumblebee said.

Ratchet grimaced. He didn't think that Barrage would so blatantly break his cover like that, and in the middle of town during rush hour at that! As if things weren't hard enough for them already.

"Um, excuse me?" The Autobots turned to Debbie, who was walking gingerly towards them on wobbly knees with her case pressed to her chest. "Can we get back to the Ark? I need to operate on Annie, now."

"Of course, Debbie." Optimus nodded. "Prowl, help me with Barrage's body. We can't leave him out here to cause any more damage, in life or in death."

"Roger that, Prime." Prowl said and helped Prime carry Barrage's body to the ground bridge.

Ratchet and Gina shared a glance, relieved to be alive after that tense situation. Barrage's reappearance was a horrid reunion they'd rather forget as soon as possible.

XXXXXX

"You fool!"

Megatron's enraged roar echoed throughout the Nemesis as the leader was given news of Barrage's unfortunate demise. This was only second to the roar he gave when he saw the insecticon's rampage on national television.

"How could you let this happen? This was supposed to be a recon mission!" Megatron shouted in Venom's face.

"I-I'm sorry, Lord Megatron," Venom stammered. "B-But while Barrage's actions were rash-"

"Rash? He exposed himself to the humans and is now well on his way to becoming a post-mortem internet sensation!" Megatron spat. "Not only did he breach protocol, he also got himself killed. And for what? Some vendetta against an Autobot medic?"

Venom could only look away in shame. There was no excuse for Barrage's actions. This was insubordination through and through. And there wasn't even anything to show for such a risk.

"Let me make this perfectly clear, Venom. You killed an Autobot-one!" Megatron held up a single finger to show his point. "And butchered his human pet. That is hardly reason to see yourself as some unbeatable alpha. Don't let it get to your head, and don't start causing havoc within my ranks on my ship! We all are Decepticons, and thus, you all answer to me, Insecticon or not. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Lord Megatron." Venom said, bowing his head. Megatron waved him off in dismissal and Venom walked off the bridge in shame. He trudged back to his quarters in a slow gait, stopping to glare at a grinning Knockout around the corner.

"Unstoppable warriors, huh?" Knockout chuckled, making sure to show all his teeth. Venom growled as the medic strolled down the hall arrogantly and punched a hole in the wall. Misfortune was just molesting him today, wasn't it?

XXXXXX

Agent Red was livid. He marched through the halls of the Skywatch regional base located in a seemingly derelict apartment building, making a straight line towards the information center. Along the way, Aron Jackson ran into him and they walked down the hall together.

"I take it you saw the news?" He asked.

"Yes. A giant robot beetle rampages through Tranquility, Dakote and there are blurry photos of it fighting another robot outside of town. Things are heating up with our alien war mongers." Red frowned.

It was only a matter of time for things to have escalated. His organization, Skywatch, had been studying these NBEs for years, watching and waiting for reports on these beings since a live one destroyed one of their bases and massacred nearly all of its personnel. Following that incident, there were numerous strange events happening worldwide, the biggest being the alignment of the nine planets in the Sol system and the reported destruction of three towns in Canadia by some mysterious beam of light. Recent encounters, including the one in Attilan, only increased the need for the Hunter program.

"Eureka" was the codename for the two animalistic NBEs found buried in Mount Kalahai following a massive volcanic explosion. They were found within the remains of what was believed to be a secret alien bunker of sorts, though its purpose was unknown. They were inert, deactivated, which allowed scientists to wire their neural circuitry with a control program that granted them dominion over the two beast bots. After weeks of study, Fredericks had brought up the idea of using the robots to find the others, since they probably could sniff them out from the recent hot spot in Yuktobania and Attilan. Veronica protested letting the captured specimens run loose, but Red was getting desperate. They needed information before things really kicked off and they were put in a bad position.

Red and Jackson entered the information center of their facility where they were holding the two Decepticons. "Recall the Hunters immediately and get me an urgent status update on the Eureka acquisitions."

"Yes sir." One of the techies said. He relayed the command signal, but an error symbol flashed on the screen. He tried again, but got the same result, something Jackson noticed.

"Problem?"

"I think so. The hunters aren't responding." The techie said. "There's some kind of competing signal."

Red's poker face skillfully hid his growing agitation. "Can you block it?"

"Negative. Where it's coming from, it's strong. Far stronger than our own implants." The officer said.

Red and Jackson shared a look. They were using the best technology Skywatch had to offer to control those aliens. Anything that could just block their powerful implants had to something else entirely. Something…extraterrestrial.

XXXXXX

Alone in his room, twelve year old Brad White excitedly watched the new coverage on the giant robot's rampage through Tranquility. He didn't know what this was about, but he really hoped that it was not a talos. Alien robots going nuts in the middle of a city was a boy's dream come true! Little did he know that one such robot was right under the same roof as him. Tucked away in the boy's bookcase was a small blue microcassette with the most peculiar purple symbol on its front.

"Soundwave…online…"


	31. Fury

Chapter 31-Fury

Beep. Beep. Beep.

That god forsaken beeping was the first thing Annie heard when she woke up from her long, dreamless sleep and she wanted to smash whatever was beeping in her hear. Still half asleep, she slowly returned to the waking world as her vision regained focus upon opening her eyes. It took her a while to realize that she was in a large room-the Ark's medibay. Annie groaned and tried to move, but her bod felt heavy and slow, and sore…god, did she feel sore. Slowly her memories returned to her, and her heart rate increased when she remembered what happened to her and Bulkhead.

"B-Bulk…head…" Her throat felt dry, like sand paper. And she couldn't raise her voice more than a whisper. "Any…one…here…?"

"Annie?" She heard Grindor's voice on her right and glanced over to him just in time to see him run out of the room yelling like a madman.

'And people call me loud.' She thought. That was when she noticed that one of her eyes was covered. 'Why is there a bandage over my eye?'

After a few minutes, she regained enough strength to push herself up onto her pillow, though it was hard when she found that she could only move her left arm. Thinking that it was just asleep from lying on it too long, Annie paid it no mind as her family and friends flooded into the room.

"Annie!" Darren gave her a relieved smile with red, teary eyes and ran over to grab her hand, forcing himself not to bear hug her. "Thank god you're alright."

"Define alright." Annie said after chugging down a glass of water Sureshock gave her. "I feel like crap, guys. I can barely see and half of my body feels numb."

As soon as she said that, everyone tensed up, and Debbie bit her lip to keep herself from breaking down. Annie quickly noticed his. "What's wrong? What's with the faces?" She asked. "Wait, where's Bulkhead? Did Ratchet fix him up already?"

Gina chose her words carefully. "Annie…Bulkhead's not doing very well, and neither are you. You two were in very bad shape when you got back to the Ark."

"Bad shape? I know Bulkhead was poisoned, but he was still okay when we fought those damn bugs. Then…" Annie remembered something else. Barrage threw a spear at her and she had moved the Enyo into Bulkhead's path to defend his blind spot. She remembered her cockpit shattering as a giant blade cut through it and…the searing agonizing pain that she felt immediately afterwards made her black out.

"Annie, are you okay?" Debbie asked.

"You look really pale." Grindor said. He reached forward to gently push her back down on the bed. "Maybe you should get some more re-"

"Take me to Bulkhead." Annie said with a shaky breath. "Take me to Bulkhead, right now."

"Annie," High Wire said. "Calm down or you'll aggravate your wounds-"

"Take me to him now damn it!" She shouted. Annie pushed Grindor away and sat back up, nearly falling on her side when she leaned on her right side. "And why the hell is my arm so numb…?"

As she sat up, the sheet fell from her body, giving her the answer she was looking for…but wasn't expecting at all. Annie's breath grew labored as she tried to move her right arm…only to find nothing there. "W-what is this?"

From her shoulder downwards, her right arm was gone, and now that she was more aware, she noticed that she couldn't feel much of her left eye behind her bandages. It was just…gone. "My arm. Where's my arm!"

She clawed at the smooth stump where her shoulder began, trying to wish back her arm into existence, but all she could feel was that alien deformity on her body. Unable to take it anymore, Annie let out a scared and horrified scream that could be heard throughout the entire Ark.

XXXXXX

For two days she was asleep, completely dead to the world along with Bulkhead. According to Ratchet, Venom had taken a pot shot at Bulkhead's back that finally unraveled all the damage he was suffering from as a result of the poison, nearly killing him. As for Annie, the spear Barrage had thrown pierced her cockpit, severing her arm; another few inches and it would have impaled her through the chest. The shrapnel sent flying her way from the impact stabbed into her chest and left eye, making that useless as well. She passed out from shock before the full extent of the pain registered.

Annie still couldn't believe what happened. Her Enyo was practically useless with its cockpit totaled, and she wouldn't be able to pilot it anyway with only one arm. But what concerned her more was Bulkhead's condition.

The former Wrecker was still in stasis lock on the recharge slab in the med bay. Annie stood beside him in a fluffy blue bathrobe, crippled and shaken, watching the steady beeping of her friend's vitals on the monitor. Ratchet and Optimus stood behind her.

"How…is he?" She asked.

"Bulkhead is stable…for now. But that neurotoxin did some serious damage to his systems and fuel lines." Ratchet said. "But once I finish replacing his tainted energon, I'll be able to make a complete assessment."

Jazz poked his head into the room. "Boss bot, I just got a call from Springer. He's on his way."

Annie glared up at him. "You're all giving up on Bulkhead already?!"

"No one's giving up on Bulkhead, Annie." Arcee said calmly. "It's just that Springer and Bulkhead were close. He'd want to be here."

"I know that!" Annie yelled at her before giving a few coughs.

"That's enough excitement for one day. Let's get you back to bed." Ratchet escorted Annie back to the human side of the room. Annie stared back forlornly at Bulkhead's sleeping form.

About twenty minutes later, Springer's ship landed near the Ark and the Wrecker commander had practically drove his way into the med bay. Optimus, Arcee and Ratchet greeted him, but he paid them no mind as he stepped up to Bulkhead's beside.

"How is he, doc?" Springer asked him in a tight voice.

"Not good, Springer. The toxins alone had ruined his body's ability repair systems and nearly infected his vital organs. He was keeping himself moving through sheer force of will." The medic explained. "Despite working on him, I don't know if he can make a full recovery from this."

Springer frowned deeply. "I've seen you work. You're a mistro!"

"Bulkhead has suffered from a complete systems failure and flatlined for almost five minutes, and I can't tell if he's suffered from cranial deterioration on top of a poisoned power line system." He sighed. "I can't even begin to operate on him until he's regained some strength."

Springer looked at Bulkhead and clenched his teeth. The life of a Wrecker was a hard one; you only got out through three ways-death, mental trauma or dishonorable discharge. They took missions that left thousands insane or traumatized and killed twice as many. Bulkhead was too much of a softie to handle the heavier missions the Wrecker's took, the morally ambiguous ones that would give bots like Bumblebee nightmares for stellar cycles. He left to work under less strenuous bots like Prime, something Springer was glad for. And still he…

"You gonna tell me who did this to him?" Springer growled. He was asking all three of them, but his bright gaze was on Optimus the whole time.

Optimus returned his stare unwaveringly. "At this time, I think it would be more important to focus on Bulkhead's recovery, rather than revenge."

Springer didn't shout or yell, as his tense silence was more than enough. "You do that."

He pushed past them and marched out of the room, leaving behind a concerned Arcee. "He's going to go after them, you know." She told Prime.

"Yes," Optimus agreed. "And I don't think we could stop him if we tried."

XXXXXX

In the forest surrounding Mount Saint Hillary, multiple trees were being felled in quick succession. Springer was practicing his daily sword techniques, something he gleaned from his time of training with Master Yoketron. Despite his large size, he spun and flipped with his sword twirling around him, keeping a firm grip on the handle in a way only a master swordsman could manage. These were maneuvers he knew by Spark, techniques he ingrained into his processor. It was all second nature to him. But it was a great way to vent positively to avoid punching someone's lights out.

Springer had lost many good bots over his long career as a Wrecker. Friends, lovers, drinking buddies; it was a job that demanded a lot from you and more often than not, the payoff was slightly less than disappointing. Too much. Bulkhead left on his own accord, a rare thing to do in a group where death was the most common form of discharge. Springer ratted on him for leaving, but he knew the big guy wasn't a coward. Bulkhead was a softie at heart, and many of the Wreckers were borderline sociopaths, Impactor among them. It was only a matter of time before the inherent madness that permeated the Wreckers drove him away. Springer thought that Bulkhead would outlive him one day, but with all this slag happening…

"Frag it all!" He stabbed his sword into a tree and gave a frustrated yell. "I'm going to find the glitch who did this and tear him apart!"

"You and me both."

Springer spun around, drawing his double-barreled plasma gun and aiming it at the speaker, only to see that it was Annie. She was dressed in casual clothes-a pair of jeans and a T-shirt with the right sleeve hanging limply at her side. Springer heard Arcee mention that the girl had gotten seriously hurt protecting Bulkhead. He should thank her in the future, when he wasn't scolding her for walking around with those injuries.

"What do you want, kid?" Springer asked, folding up his gun.

"Seeing how you were doing." Annie said, looking around at the circle of fallen trees around them. "Nice moves for a big guy."

"How did you manage to find me?"

Annie jerked a thumb behind her at Grindor, who stood by a tree farther back. "He's my helper for now until I can walk around without breaking into spontaneous crying fits. Still trying to get used to the whole one arm-one eye thing."

Springer sighed and attached his sword to his back. "Go back to the Ark, Annie. You'll need your rest if you want to make a full recovery."

"I'm never going to make a full recovery!" She shouted, her green eye flashing. "I lost an arm and an eye. I'll never be 100 percent again, and neither will Bulkhead!"

Springer looked down at Annie. He could see the bottled up rage in her eye, how powerful they were. Bulkhead would always shower praise about this girl during one of their talks over the comm and he wondered what about this girl made Bulkhead so proud. He could partially see why now.

"Annie, I promise you, I'm going to find who did this to the both of you and tear him a new one." He promised.

"Take me with you." She suddenly demanded.

"What? No!" Grindor protested. "Annie, you're not healthy enough to go out yet!"

"He's right. I'm not dragging an injured child along one of my missions." Springer said. "Don't worry, when I find out who jumped our boy, I'll give him a beating he won't walk away from."

Annie narrowed her eye and said, "I know who did it."

Springer and Grindor paused, looking at her. Against his better judgment, Springer asked, "Who?"

"Take me with you," She said. "And I'll tell you everything."

For a child, this girl certainly had the mind of a Decepticon, Springer mused. Heaven help this world when she becomes a teenager.

XXXXXX

Megatron, Nightshade and Knockout stood in the med lab with the Race team, who were retrained on the medical berth and still recovering from Knockout's operation on them. "Are you sure they're tagged?"

"Yes, lord Megatron. These little guys can now be tracked and located in case we get another heist like before." Knockout promised. "I've even upgraded it so we can track their signals if they're in orbit, so no guessing games the next time around."

"Yet despite that, I know you'll still manage to lose us you red pepper fragger." Downshift spat at the medic.

"Hold your tongue, Minicon." Nightshade hissed, glaring down at the team. "This will go quickly and smoothly as long as you cooperate. Don't make this harder than it already has to be."

"Don't worry, it'll get harder without our provocation." Indy replied.

"Enough of this," Megatron growled, pushing Nightshade and Knockout aside to loom over the Minicons. "You three now belong to me. We are far from the Autobots, and thus you have no hope of rescue. This ship rests on an island far from any solid land, so even if you did escape our notice, you have nowhere to run." He told them. "Now, the three of you will combine and form the Skyboom shield, and then you will link with me. I wish to do a test run on a four-way linkage and you've all just volunteered."

Downshift and Forza almost told Megatron to go frag himself, but Indy's look settled them down. Suddenly, to Megatron's glee, they turned their attitude around and followed his orders.

"Race team, combine!" On Indy's command the three Minicons transformed and merged into the 11 foot long Skyboom shield, their color scheme making the gestalt shield look like it was made of gold with black accents. Though meant for a Minicon gestalt, when powerlinked with Megatron, it was nearly the perfect size, like his fusion cannon. But aesthetics were the last thing on Megatron's mind.

"Yes, yes!" Megatron grinned as he felt the Skyboom shield's power surge through his body. He began to cackle as he felt his body grow stronger from this gestalt alone. It was amazing! "Power…beyond measure-gnn-AAHHH!"

To Nightshade and Knockout's surprise, Megatron doubled over in pain as energy crackled from the shield. What was a euphoric rush of power was now an agonizing surge of pain rushing through his circuits that actually brought him to his knees. Nightshade tried to touch him, but ended up burning her fingers.

"Get that thing off him!" She ordered Knockout.

"N-no…" Megatron grunted, his body wracked with painful seizures. He could control it! "W-won't…let…"

Finally it was too much for Megatron and he was forced to disengage the Skyboom shield. It popped off his arm and fell to the floor, separating back into the Race team. Megatron and Nightshade both pointed their weapons at them.

"What the hell did you do to me?" Megatron shouted.

"A little failsafe that Dualor cooked up in case we were picked up by any unsavory Bulks." Indy said. "Powerlinking with us will cause a system-afterburn that feels like an EMP wave juiced up to the tenth degree. Prolonged exposure can cause you to go into stasis lock after some very painful damage to your circuitry."

"We can just disable the failsafe." Knockout said, though he didn't sound very confidant. These Minicons knew their stuff and their foresight was very disturbing.

"Only Dualor and the Space team know how to safely disable the system without causing an automatic backlash that'll kill us." Downshift added. "You start picking at us, and ZAP!" He clapped his hands. "No more Minicons."

And no more Skyboom shield." Forza grinned.

"Then if I can't use the shield, you're of no use to me!" Megatron pointed his fusion cannon directly at them. "I'll crush you!"

"No, you won't." Indy replied. "Not when you've had a taste."

Megatron glared down at the Race team's leader, who glared right back at him without a trace of fear. Megatron knew false bravado when he saw it-Starscream had that in spades most of the time-but this Minicon wasn't faking it. He knew Megatron's need for power was enough for him to hold off on killing them…for now. It was that frustrating thought that made him lower his cannon and marched out of the room.

"Lock them up in the brig, Nightshade until I say otherwise." Megatron said. "And Indy, remember that I have more than enough time to make you bow to my will. You're isolated and far from any possible help you can count on. Refusing me will only make your suffering more agonizing."

Indy felt pride at having faced down Megatron like that in a game of wits. It was the one time he was grateful for Dualor's paranoia. But it only delayed the inevitable. Sooner or later, Megatron was going to find a way around the fail safes, and when that happened, nothing could stop the Race team from being used against their friends. Only time would tell how they were going to get out of this impossible situation.

XXXXXX

'This is the first time I'm actually taking a ride in an Autobot spaceship that's not the Ark and I can barely keep my eyes open.' Annie thought. She reached into her bag for Mjolnir and gave herself a small shock to wake herself up. 'There we go!'

She and Grindor were sitting in the passenger seat inside Springer's ship, the Jackhammer. It was a bit comical as the chair was several times larger than them, and even together they could barely fill up all the space in the seat. At least it was roomy. Springer sat next to them steadily flying the Jackhammer through the air as easily as he would fly in his helicopter mode.

"I can't believe you decided to take her along." Grindor grumbled. "Can't you see she's seriously hurt?"

"Don't get snarky at me in my own ship, Minicon." Springer said. "Your girl would've done something stupid anyway to get my attention, and I'm not going to be responsible for anything that happens to her. The last thing I need is Prime and Arcee roasting my aft."

"You're supposed to set an example!"

"I'm a Wrecker. I'm the last person you should consider a role model." Springer replied. "Not like you did anything to stop her."

"I tried!" Grindor huffed. And he really did try to stop her from leaving. But he was alone and against a traumatized girl with a legendary hammer that discharged lightning powerful enough to blast holes in cybertronian armor. He wasn't going to fight that bare handed. Annie never threatened him before, but she wasn't in the right state of mind to say no to her face.

Shut up, Grindor," Annie hissed. "You whining isn't making this any easy than it isn't."

"Leave him, kid, he's just worried about you."

"Whatever." Annie replied and looked up at him. "Now what are we going to do about Venom? Hunt his ass down and waste him?"

"I was thinking we let the bug come to us instead of chasing him around the country. And to do that," Springer gave her a smirk and tossed a grenade in his hand. "We need to force the Cons into an ultimatum."

XXXXXX

In the sparring room, Demolishor and Venom circled around each other in a ring with the other Cons rooting for them. On one side, Thundercracker and Skywarp, and on the other, Chop Shop. Rumble and Frenzy were in the middle rooting for the winner, which was still debatable. To an outsider, this would look like a spirited little regulated fight between comrades in arms, but this was just a façade for Demolishor and Venom to air out their grievances through the art of beating each other to a mangled mess.

"Just concede and walk away with your dignity, weakling. Fighting me will only end in your embarrassment." Venom taunted.

"You talk a lot for a cockroach that got run out of its own nest!" Demolishor said.

Venom rushed at him and swiped his claws, but Demolishor let the talons scrape his chest before lunging forward and catching Venom's jaw in an uppercut. Venom staggered back but fought back with a strong elbow strike to Demolishor's nose, followed by a kick to the chest. Demolishor grabbed his leg and threw him into the ring, slamming him to the floor and punching his face repeatedly.

"Get back up, Venom!" Chop Shop yelled. "Come on!"

"Rip him apart, Demolishor!" Skywarp hollered. "Show that scrap eater who runs this ship!"

At the oil bar, Leader-1, Search, the twins Rook and Crosswise, and the newly inducted Mini-Con Windsheer watched the fight drinking cans of distilled energon laced with Fulcrum. Though fun at first, watching the Cons try to tear each other apart had lost its novelty early on and had quickly gotten boring. Granted it's the only form of entertainment for the Minion population on the Nemesis, and they weren't going to complain seeing that Megatron or Nightshade could come end the debacle in a heartbeat.

"How long do you think it'll be before Megatron stops this?" Asked Search.

"Nine, maybe ten minutes." Leader-1 shrugged. "What about you, rookie?"

"Call me by my name, Leader-1," Windsheer growled and took a sip from his can. "And I think Lord Megatron's due any minute now. Nothing happens on this ship without him knowing."

"Don't make Megatron out to be some omnipotent god." Rook said. "Have you forgotten that this ship's been blown to hell and back by misshapen Terran monsters and Insecticons?"

Don't say that so loud, you moron." Crosswise said. "Primus knows how many damn spies he has around here."

Leader-1 shook his head. Rook and Crosswise were good soldiers and warriors, but just hearing them talk lowered his intelligence by the second.

Back in the ring, Venom and Demolishor were still fighting, now locked in a tight grapple, trying to use their strength to bring the other to the floor. After a few minutes, it was clear that Demolishor was gaining the upper hand, but that was cut short when Knockout burst in the room with his usual cocky swagger.

"Break up the wrestling club, boys," Knockout clapped his hands. "Megatron wants a word with our Insecticon champion."

Venom grumbled and pushed Demolishor away, jumping out of the ring. "What does he want?"

Knockout smirked. "You better see for yourself. Don't want to spoil the surprise."

That lingering sense of unease sitting at the back of Venom's mind grew as he walked to the bridge and he hoped his instincts were wrong about the impending doom coming upon him. Knockout brought him into the room and cleared his throat.

"I've brought Venom, lord Megatron." Knockout said, still smirking. Venom knew it wasn't good if the arrogant mech was this happy.

"Good. Some closer, Venom, this involves you as well." Megatron said, not looking at them. Venom did as he was told, and Megatron pressed a button on the computer to play a very recent message.

" _Yo, Megs, hope you're having a grand old time on this rock."_ It was the voice of Springer, the current commander of the Wreckers. " _If you're hearing this, then you're probably wondering what the Wrecker commander is doing here so far from the front lines. Well here's my reason: just recently, one of your filthy bugs tried to scrap my friend and his human partner. Wrecker or not, I can't let that slide, and I'm here for some payback. So here's my offer-have that bastard Venom meet me at the Coronado mountain range. If your bug bows out, then I'm going to start torching each and every one of your secured energon mines until he grows a pair. Don't think I'm serious? Well, here's the sound of 10 tons of energon going up in flames."_

Venom actually winced as a loud explosion ended the message and the recording stopped. He looked at Megatron, who still had his back to him. "L-lord Megatron…I-"

Megatron spun around and backhanded him across the face, hard enough to dislodge a few teeth. "You told me you killed the Autobot and his human!"

"I did my lord; both were grievously wounded by Barrage and myself!" Venom insisted.

"And yet, the Wrecker hints that they're both alive!" Megatron's eyes blazed as he snarled in Venom's face.

"An Autobot trick!"

"I don't know," Knockout tapped his chin with a pointed finger. "Did you actually see them expire? It is protocol among us _real_ soldiers to confirm an enemy's demise."

Venom hissed, but he knew Knockout had a point. He was sure that the human was dead, but the Autobot…there was no possible way for him to have survived that long with the neurotoxins weakening his defenses. He pointed this out to Megatron, but the Decepticon leader was unconvinced.

"This changes things, Venom. Whether or not you killed them is moot at this point, as we have more pressing concerns with the Wrecker commander attacking our energon stores!" Megatron jabbed a finger in Venom's chest. "If you didn't kill the Autobot Bulkhead, then either you take Springer's head, or I'll have yours!"

XXXXXX

Ugh," Annie groaned. That earlier rush from running scout in that energon mine was starting to wear off and she began to feel the exhaustion setting in. A side effect of being hopped up on too many painkillers.

"You alright?" Grindor asked. Since leaving the Ark, he'd been like her shadow, and though she appreciated the help, she was starting to feel suffocated by his attention.

"I'm fine, don't worry about me." She said, weakly pushing him back.

"Don't fight your body, kid. You've been through a lot." Springer advised. "It won't do for you to suddenly pass out on us."

"I said I'm fine!" Annie snapped. "I'm not the one lying in a damn coma after being poisoned to near death!"

"No," Springer agreed. "You're the girl who lost so much protecting a good friend of mine. Too much, in fact."

That made Annie go quiet. They sat in silence as the Jackhammer flew undetected over the country. After a while, Annie felt her eyes start to droop and she struggled to keep them open, but it was getting difficult by the minute. Not to mention her eye was starting to ache, and she fought the urge to rub at her stump-she didn't have an arm anymore and yet she felt that tingling feeling that it should be there.

She had gotten over the initial shock of losing vital limbs in lieu of worrying over Bulkhead, but now that things were somewhat quiet, it was rushing back to her. She wanted to clench her fist, but felt nothing here. She rubbed at her right shoulder, but could only feel the rough bandages and a smooth space where her arm once was. She heard of soldiers experiencing phantom limb syndrome due to loss of limbs, their bodies thinking that their missing limb is still there. Annie felt that she shouldn't be surprised anymore with all that's happened. All it takes is two minutes for everything to change, but Annie felt that she was being singled out by the divines. What was she? Fate's little bitch?

'No talos, no arm, no eye, no Bulkhead, only my sparkling wit and Mjolnir.' She thought wearily. 'Helpless again. Was this how Bumblebee felt when OZ took his T-cog? Gaia, this is the worst feeling.'

"Springer?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you think…Bulkhead is going to make it?" Annie asked.

Springer snorted. "Of course he's gonna pull through. He's a strong mech. Been through worse scraps than this." His voice took on a more somber tone. "And we've got Ratchet on our side. He's the best we've got and hasn't failed us yet."

"Yeah, you're right." Annie smiled and leaned her head on Grindor's shoulder. "We've still got a lot of things to do together. Monster truck rallies, dragon sighting, treasure hunting with Gina; I've been making a list."

"And be sure to remind him every day until he wakes up. It ain't gonna be for me kid, but for you." Springer said. He looked over at Annie and saw that she was sound asleep, clutching Mjolnir like a teddy bear. He smiled. "Sleep tight, Annie."

XXXXXX

Annie was abruptly awoken by a sudden jolt from the ship. "I'm awake!" She looked around, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. "Are we there yet?"

"Yeah, Springer just landed the ship." Grindor said. Annie slapped her cheek and stood up.

"So what's the plan?" Annie asked.

"The plan is for me to do my thing and for you two to stay put." Springer pointed at the blue button on his console. "I've preset the autopilot to take you back to the Ark. Press this if the battle goes south."

"You're not me leaving here! We had a deal!" Annie yelled. "You said I could help!"

"And you have," Springer said calmly. "One of us has to be there when Bulkhead wakes up. And he'll fire off my rivets if anything happened to you on my watch."

Annie's nails bit into her hand as she watched Springer leave the ship through the hatch. She felt Grindor place a comforting hand on her shoulder, but it didn't ease her worry as she saw Springer drive out into the canyon in car mode.

Springer drove a few feet from the ship before stopping in the middle of the canyon and reverting to robot mode. He took out his sword and shouted to the canyon, "Come out, Venom! I'm going to stomp you out just like I'd did your friends back on Cybertron!"

The familiar buzzing was heard faintly before it grew in intensity and two shadows appeared in the air. Springer flipped back as a powerful lightning bolt was fired from the sky. Venom and Chop Shop arrived, clinging to the walls of the canyon and glaring at Springer.

"You caused us a lot of grief today, Autobot." Chop Shop sneered.

"You make it sound like I care." Springer replied, spinning his sword. "Now come down here so I can cut you bastards down to size!"

Venom wasted no time in obliging his request. Pushing off the rocks, he propelled himself towards Springer, transforming and drawing his scythe. Springer leapt out of his path, narrowly dodging a slash from the scythe that scratched his back as he flipped over it and kicked Venom in the side. Chop Shop flew at Springer, his arms turning into a pair of scissor-like pincers and snapped away at the Autobot. Springer deflected most of the strikes with his blade and slashed him across the chest. Venom charged at him from his six, but Springer batted his scythe away and lunged at him, digging his blade into Venom's chest plate with a drilling maneuver that left a spiral gouge in his armor.

"What's the matter bugs? Finding it hard to fight a mech who's not poisoned?" He taunted. Despite his bravado, Springer knew he was in a bad position. He could handle a couple of regular Insecticons, but alphas were another story. They were stronger than the average bug, and two of them coming at him at once were risky. Which meant that he had to take out the tag-along.

Springer jumped off a boulder and kicked Venom in the face, flipping in mid air and slicing Chop Shop's arm off. The Insecticon gave an angry and pained howl, but Springer ignored his screeching when he did another leap, this time throwing his sword and skillfully stabbing Chop Shop in the chest. He fell forward, and Springer pulled his sword out only to successfully sever Chop Shop's heading one swipe.

"Now that the third wheel's gone, let's have some real fun!" Springer threw Chop Shop's head at Venom and followed up with a diagonal strike. Venom smacked the head away and grabbed Springer's sword, only to have it pulled from his grasp and left two deep cuts on his hands. The Wrecker fell into a pattern, slashing, stabbing and throwing rocks at the alpha, not giving him a chance to fight back at all. Venom was taking too much damage and had to chase Springer off by firing his electric cannons at him.

"Don't get too cocky, Wrecker. I've already killed one Autobot, and I'm eager to add another one to my record." Venom hissed. He jumped over Chop Shop's corpse and drew his scythe.

"Bulkhead isn't dead, and neither is the girl. Two direct hits and a neurotoxin and you still couldn't kill them." Springer shrugged. "Wonder what that says about your skills."

In the Jackhammer, Annie and Grindor watched the fight intensely. Annie's memories of Bulkhead fighting Venom were vague, but she knew that the Insecticon wasn't this good with a scythe back then. Was that metal bastard playing with them back then?

"I've never seen an Insecticon use a weapon that skillfully before." Grindor said. "Even an alpha shouldn't be able to keep Springer on his toes like this."

"Doesn't matter. He has to kill that freak for us. For Bulkhead." Annie muttered.

But Grindor had a point; Venom's skill with his weapon was uncanny. He used the length of the scythe to keep Springer from getting too close without getting cut in return. Springer twirled his sword in wide arcs and strong slashes that pushed Venom back, but Venom did a good job parrying most of his strikes. Sparks flew, metal clanged and collided, and both mechs were reaching their limit. Venom fought savagely, but Springer's technique mirrored those of a fencer, delivering quick strikes and remaining light on his feet. Eventually, he was going to find a weak point and deal a critical blow.

Unfortunately, he forgot to expect the unexpected from an Insecticon. When Springer moved in for a sword-fist combo, Venom's mouth plate retracted and he spat out a glob of acidic solution into Springer's face. The Wrecker instinctively jumped back to avoid most of it, but some got in his eyes and momentarily blinded him. Venom rushed forward and knocked the sword from Springer's hand and went for the kill. Springer managed to avoid his first attack and grab his arm, throwing him over his shoulder and kicking him in the face. Springer then tried to throw a grenade, but Venom blasted it from his hands with his electro-cannon, along with some fingers.

"I've killed enough of your Wreckers to know how you fight. No matter where you come from or your specialties, you always go the explosive route when things don't go your way!" Venom cackled.

Venom rushed the half blind Springer and began delivering a series of devastating blows to the Autobot. Strong punches capable of shattering stone pummeled his face and chest, energon spilled from the cuts on his face, his servos shook from each blow, and he could barely think long enough to fight back. Venom threw Springer into a boulder, then he charged and rammed into Springer, sending him crashing through the boulder and rolling across the ground.

"Get your gun! Hurry!" Annie yelled at him.

Springer tried to take out his blaster, but Venom leapt up and landed on his back, crushing him into the hard ground. He picked Springer up and punched him in the chest hard enough to send a shockwave through his body. He gave two more punches to the weakened Autobot before throwing him into the air and kicking him in the face. Springer crashed onto the ground, bleeding and in pain.

Springer pushed himself up on weak arms and looked up at Annie, staring at him through the window. Spitting out energon, he groaned, "Run…"

Annie shook her head, eye tearing up, but Grindor moved towards the control panel. "We have to go."

We can't leave him!" She protested.

"Springer wants us to leave! He's trying to keep us safe, can't you see that?!" Grindor yelled at her.

Annie got up into his face and gave him the most hateful glare she had ever given him. "We are not leaving here until that bastard is dead!"

Venom stomped his foot on Springer's chest. "You should have brought reinforcements, Wrecker. This would've been slightly more enjoyable with an audience."

"Ngh…Get…*cough*fragged…" Springer coughed and spat some energon onto Venom's foot.

"And to think I was going to make your death quick." Venom growled and raised his scythe over his fallen foe. "I'll be sure to keep you alive long enough to feel me disembowel you."

Just as he was about to impale Springer's head, the sky darkened and a lightning bolt fell from the heavens, hitting the scythe and engulfing Venom in a painful surge of electricity. It was only for a few seconds, but those few seconds were the most excruciating moments in Venom's life as he felt every circuit in his body overcharge and burn. He stumbled back, dropping his scythe as warning labels appeared in his vision. He was almost on the verge of stasis lock!

"H-how…?" Venom trembled. A flash of light from the Jackhammer caused him to look up, and before he could blink, another bolt was fired from its direction, blasting a hole in his shoulder, vaporizing his shoulder joint and destroying most of his arm. He had no time to register the pain as a small object laced with lightning flew at him as amazing speeds. It was Mjolnir, and it was unstoppable as it tore through Venom's chest, annihilating his laser core and tearing through his back before shooting into the sky. Venom gave a dying wheez before he fell back, dying before he hit the ground.

Springer stared at Venom's smoking corpse before looking over at the Jackhammer. Standing atop the ship was Annie, who caught Mjolnir in her hand, lightning shooting from the hammer, but not hurting her. Her expression was stone cold and her remaining eye was like it was carved from a hard-cut emerald. He grinned and slowly stood up, wincing as he limped back to the Jackhammer as Mjolnir stopped discharging energy.

"I thought I told you to run." Springer said.

"I wasn't able to save Bulkhead when it mattered. I'm not adding you to my scorecard." She said mechanically.

Springer shook his head, but gave her a proud look. "All the same, thanks for the save, Annie. You did Bulkhead proud."

Annie looked at the two dead Insecticons lying on the ground. "Then why don't I feel any different?"

XXXXXX

The flight back to the Ark was quiet and depressing. As soon as the high of the battle wore off, they both realized that the Autobots probably realized where they were and would not be happy with them. Springer was still nursing his wounds, and Annie's were starting to act up again, which made Springer hasten their trip back home. When they landed near the Ark, Optimus, Arcee and Ratchet stood by the landing hatch, and they did not look happy.

"What the hell were thinking?!" Arcee hissed in Springer's face. "Dragging Annie and Grindor into danger like that, they could've been killed!"

"But they're still alive, aren't they? And I didn't put her in danger." Springer returned, inwardly terrified of her rage, but still holding strong. "Besides, that girl saved my aft today, and I owe her my life."

"That's not the point you insufferable-"

"Arcee! It's all right," Annie said. "I blackmailed Springer into taking us. It's not his fault, so please don't blame him."

Darren and Debbie ran outside and hugged her to them, worried sick for their sister. "Annie, what's wrong with you? You could've made your condition worse!" Debbie cried, though she didn't lessen her hug.

Annie hugged them back, but she pulled back to look at Ratchet. "How is he?"

"Bulkhead is…stable for the moment," Ratchet explained. "I cleared his systems of the neurotoxin, and I've finished operating on him. But Annie…his wounds were very great. I'm not sure he'll be fully functional again."

Annie frowned, her hair covering her right eye and she pushed past Darren and Debbie to enter the ship. The Autobots watched her limp down the hall before turning to Springer, who was looking at the girl with an equally sad expression.

"I'm…going to head back to Orbital Command. I can't bring myself to see Bulkhead right now," Springer sighed. "Not like this."

Annie walked into the med bay and slowly climbed up the latter onto Bulkhead's berth, making her way onto his chest and staring at his face. Blood ran from beneath the bandages over her missing eye as she cried on top of her friend.

"I'm so sorry, Bulkhead." Annie cried.

XXXXXX

Megatron stared at the remains of the two Insecticons. Two alphas, brutally slaughtered and left to rust in the desert. Chop Shop's remains were mostly intact, but there was barely anything left of Venom save for his head, an arm and his legs. His corpse was warped, like it was hit by high temperature plasma. Megatron scowled and slammed his fists on the table in anger.

"How did this happen?! Two alpha Insecticons should've had no problem killing this Autobot and yet he was able to do this?" He spat through clenched teeth.

"No, my lord. I saw it all." Songbird said, sitting on Nightshade's shoulder. "It was…a human girl."

Megatron's eyes widened and he shared a shocked glance with Nightshade. A human child did this? A wave of unease fell over him as he realized that this contest of superiority for Terra wasn't as clear cut as he originally thought.


	32. Memories in the Rain

Chapter 32-Memories in the Rain

Three days passed and still Bulkhead had yet to awaken from his coma. Despite Ratchet flushing Venom's neurotoxin from his system, there was still no guarantee that he would make a full recovery. That alone made Annie's own recovery process drop as well. She did little else than sit on Bulkhead's chest save for eating, sleeping, and bathing. She barely said anything either, and instead of getting better, her condition only seemed to get worse. To her family and friends, this was getting out of hand.

"Annie, please, you need some fresh air." Darren begged his sister. "Sitting around all day isn't healthy."

"I'm not sitting around, Darren. I'm watching over Bulkhead." Annie said. Her voice was a bit scratchy from lack of use, which was another bad sign.

"Annie, Ratchet can do that for you." Debbie sighed. "You just need to focus on getting better."

"Getting better?" She laughed scathingly. She slid off Bulkhead's chest and climbed down the ladder on the side of the medical slab. Her foot slipped and she almost fell, but Debbie aught her. Annie angrily pushed her sister away and glared at her siblings. "How can I get better? I'm missing an eye and an arm. I can't just run that off on a treadmill!"

"I know, Annie, but Ratchet can help you." Debbie said in a weak voice. Just looking at Annie in this state made her want to cry. "I hear he's helping Wheeljack make a new arm for you. A robotic prosthetic. Isn't that great?"

"Doesn't bring my real arm back or my eye for that matter." Annie sniffed. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to look after Bulkhead."

She turned around to return to her post, only to have Ratchet step in her way. "I can handle that just fine, Annie. Listen to your family. You need fresh air, and staying cooped up in this room isn't doing your wounds any good."

Annie glared up at him. "Are you telling me that as a doctor, or as a friend?"

"Both." He replied.

They shared an intense stare down that went on long enough to make Debbie and Darren uncomfortable. Finally, Annie backed down and marched towards the door.

"Fine then, I'll go." She spat. "At least have the courtesy to say get the hell out to my face!"

Wheeljack opened the door and waved to everyone. "Hey guys-"

"Move it!" Annie pushed past his legs on her way out, almost making him trip. He looked down at her retreating form, then looked to Ratchet, who just sighed.

"What was that about?" Wheeljack asked.

"It's just a girl dealing with her grief, Wheeljack." Debbie sighed.

XXXXXX

The faint sound of thunder rumbled in the distance as a light rainfall fell over the forest surrounding Tranquility. Raindrops fell upon the trees, though the ground was still somewhat dry. It would've been peaceful had there not been a flying hammer smashing through the trees. Mjolnir discharged massive arcs of lightning as it smashed through everything in its path, circling around to flying back into Annie's hand.

Annie gave a roar as she swung Mjolnir and released another bolt into the lake, causing an explosion of water to burst forth. Panting heavily, she looked around at the damage she caused. Ten minutes of venting her rage and part of the lake looked like someone did some rounds through the trees on a giant monster truck. Using a punching bag was out of the question, so this was all she could do. Even the thrill of using Mjolnir couldn't fill that emptiness within her.

'All the shouting and fighting in the world won't be able to bring it back.' She thought. This, her god awful vision, Bulkhead's state, and knowing that her talos was out of commission, Annie did the only she could do-cry.

She fell to her knees as the edge of the lake and began to cry, pouring out all her feelings at once. Annie cried her heart out alone until she heard someone approaching.

"Annie?"

Annie quickly turned around and saw Jazz walking through the bushes. "Oh, it's you." She sniffled.

"Well, yeah, it's certainly not the music genre." Jazz grinned. He walked up to her, not yet commenting on the level of destruction she caused. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm sitting alone in a forest during a downpour crying my eyes out. What do you think?" She huffed and looked away.

Jazz looked around at the fallen and destroyed trees and deep trenches with smoke rising from them. He whistled and sat down next to her. "I see you found a way to vent out your anger. Productive, but I doubt the animals appreciate it."

"No offense, Jazz, but I came out here to be alone."

"Oh. I see. That's cool. Just wanted to check up on you." Jazz said, looking out at the dark waters of the lake, watching the tiny raindrops fall onto its surface and disappear. He waited a few more minutes before talking again. "I know that you're hurting, Annie. You and Bulkhead are close, and seeing him like this hurts. But bottling up your feelings isn't how you should deal with this. Darren, Debbie, Grindor, they're all worried about you. It hurts them to see you like this. If you ever need to talk to anyone or-"

"What the hell do you know about how I'm feeling?!" Annie snapped, her voice cracking a bit from a forced back sob. "You're a Cybertronian, you guys can just pop on another leg or arm and everything will be new as the day you were born. Hell, you can even transplant T-cogs and other fucking doohickeys, so don't say that you know what I'm going through!"

"I'm not taking abut physical wounds, Annie. I'm talking about mental ones." Jazz replied.

Annie blinked up at him. "You mean…Arcee?"

"I assume she's told you about that dark time in her life, right? Well, losing Moonracer put her on a downward spiral and she was a lot like you at one point. Scared, lost, alone…"

"Weak," Annie finished softly. "I'm guessing she didn't get better until you came along?"

"Maybe. But her recovery didn't happened overnight." Jazz said and leaned back on his hands. "I simply put her on the road to recovery. How she dealt with her pain was her choice alone."

XXXXXX

 **Polyhex,** **Cybertron-5 million years ago.**

 _The weather was cold and wet. Gloomy and depressing couldn't even begin to describe the atmosphere for Arcee as she crouched in a balcony outside an apartment near Polyhex's residential area. Rain pelted her body, but she hadn't moved from that position since arriving there with her strike team. Her team was on the ground doing an equipment check and waiting for their scout to return with some news. The mission they were undertaking was very dangerous, but crucial, as if they succeeded, then they would be able to cripple the Decepticons' communications network throughout the eastern hemisphere._

 _Polyhex was a city-state that was once the main hub for the Communication Grid that spanned the entire planet before the war. When war broke out and society started crumbling, Polyhex was one of the first cities to be taken over by the Decepticons and was made into one of the major focal points in their communications network for that entire area. Arcee's team-consisting of team leader Dino, Mirage, Inferno, Cliffjumper and Blaster-was tasked by Ultra Magnus to sabotage the main control tower at the heart of the city that acted as the main focal node in the network. At the moment, they were waiting on Mirage to return from his recon to know what point of entry they could take._

" _Come on, how long is this going to take?" Inferno complained. "It'll be daylight by the time we'll get the intel."_

" _Maybe he turned tail and ran." Cliffjumper snorted, checking his proton rifle for the fifth time. "It's something the coward would do."_

" _Can it, Cliff. Now's not the time for that slag." Dino said._

 _The wait was long and painful, but after an hour, Mirage reappeared seemingly from thin air, jumping over Cliffjumper's body (knocking his toe against the back of the red mech's head) and landed before Dino._

" _Bout damn time you got back, creeper." Cliffjumper grumbled._

" _You try sneaking past a squad of cloakers and pressure sensors." Mirage shot back. "Ungrateful little red runt."_

" _Cliff, shut up. Mirage, what did you learn?" Dino asked._

" _That bridge is the only way through," Mirage reported, pointing at the large highway leading to the spire across the gorge. "And patrols go around the clock with three second lulls in security."_

" _Wonderful." Inferno sighed._

" _But I did find an opening to an underground tunnel network that could get us inside. It's in an alleyway near the bridge. If we're quick, we could probably sneak past one of the patrols."_

 _Dino narrowed his eyes and nodded. "Okay, it's out best shot. Let's roll out Autobots!" As the rest of the team gathered their gear and moved out, Dino noticed that Arcee was crouched on top of a balcony still looking out at the city. "Arcee, move it!"_

" _H-huh?" Arcee blinked and nodded shakily. "Yes, sir. Sorry."_

 _They ran out of the rundown building they were hiding in and jogged through the backstreets and always, away from enemy eyes and acute sensory organs. Dino and Cliffjumper took the lead, the latter scouting ahead as the group neared the manhole in between two stores. They said nothing, using hand signs and comm-bursts to communicate, with only the sound of their feet against the wet ground as they ran towards their destination._

" _Keep moving. We're almost there." Dino whispered._

 _They were halfway down the alleyway when a spherical Sky Spy appeared around the last corner in their path. Cliffjumper didn't hesitate to raise his rifle and Dino tried to stop him. "No, Cliff!"_

 _The drone was destroyed by two quick bursts from the red Autobot, and Inferno ran up to him to give the mech a quick whack upside his head. "What was that for?! The thing's dead so it can't send an alarm!"_

" _No, you moron. Destroying that Sky Spy sent out an alert that'll alert nearby forces to our-" Inferno heard a loud hum and looked up to see two gunships hovering over the alley, and two squads of Vehicons appear in the mouth of the alley."-Position!"_

" _Weapons free!" Dino yelled and the dark alleyway was lip up by laser fire coming from all directions. Cliffjumper and Inferno quickly set up three over-shields to protect the group from the worst of the onslaught, but those wouldn't hold them for long. "Arcee, Mirage, get that cover off!"_

" _We're moving!" Mirage snapped. He was using a laser cutter to cut through the manhole cover, while Arcee saw an opening large enough for them to slip through. The Decepticons were slowly encroaching on their position, and there was no room for escape. They were trapped if they couldn't get underground. "We almost have it."_

 _As the soldiers closed in on them, one of the gunships flew at an angle above them and began firing particle blasts at the barrier. Dino cursed as he saw the over-shield weakening. Mirage noticed it too and cursed._

" _Damn it, we're out of time!" Mirage said. Fortunately, the manhole was uncovered, but just as the over-shield burned out in a bright flash from one last blast. Knowing that they now had a few seconds to act, Mirage grabbed Arcee and shoved her towards the hole. "Arcee, go!"_

" _What?! No, I can't-"_

" _Just go!"_

 _Arcee couldn't protest as she was pushed into the hole and fell down the narrow shaft head first. Up above she could hear a loud boom shake the tunnel followed by more blaster fire, before she fell into the darkness._

XXXXXX

 _Arcee regained her senses as she floated on the water inside the sewer system that drained excess water accumulated from condensed moisture or heavy rainfall. It was knee deep, and she could've stood up, but she remained in her position, staring up at where she had fallen._

 _She wondered about the fate of her team. Were they captured or killed on the spot? She imagined that the Cons weren't very keen on letting a strike team of Autobots live after trying to disrupt their communications. If they were dead, well…that was nothing new to her. Death seemed to have been enamored with the pink Autobot-she lost her sister, various squad mates from the Ky-Alexian militia, watched countless friends die, and now she lost another team as well._

' _All because of this stupid war.' Arcee thought bleakly. 'How many times do I have to go through this before it just stops? I'm tired…so tired.' Arcee heard an explosion down the tunnel to her left and heard multiple footsteps running in her direction. They came from the only two tunnels leading to the cistern, leaving her effectively trapped. Sure enough, two squads of Vehicons ran into the chamber and surrounded her as she stood up._

" _Surrender, Autobot, or be terminated." A Vehicon ordered, pointing his blaster at her face._

" _Go to hell." Arcee snarled, raising her swords. She could probably take out a dozen of them before they shot her down. Either way, she wasn't going down without a fight. 'At least I'll get to see Moonracer again.'_

 _The Vehicons prepared to open fire and she got ready to slaughter the lot of them, when she heard an explosion come from the north tunnel. Arcee and the other Vehicons looked to the tunnel to see the rear guard of squad 2 get decimated by some unknown assailants. Arcee jumped back as a silver mech leapt over the Vehicons, cutting them down with wrist mounted vibro-blades. Another explosion came from the other tunnel and this time, a green femme danced around them, twirling a pink laser ribbon that sliced through their bodies like sheet metal._

" _What the hell?" Arcee muttered. Two bots and they were easily tearing through them without using any guns. Not to mention the Vehicons, being the poor shots they were, were in complete disarray as they tried and failed to cut down their enemies. Within minutes, the Vehicon squads were dead or retreated back to the surface. When the two bots that caused the massacre turned towards her, Arcee raised her swords with a growl._

" _Whoa, hold up there, we don't mean you no harm." The silver mech said quickly. He retracted his blades and raised his hands. "We're friendly, see?"_

 _Arcee narrowed her eyes and lowered her weapons once she saw the Autobot symbol on their bodies. "Who are you?"_

" _I'm Jazz, and my two friends here are Lickety-Split…"_

 _The green femme gave her a bright smile and waved merrily at her. "Hi there!"_

" _And Hashtag."_

" _Hashtag?" Arcee tensed when she felt something behind her and spun around to see a light brown femme standing around chest height to her. The strangest thing about this femme was that she had no face, or even a head-instead she had a rectangular screen that displayed pictures or words whenever she communicated._

" _She's out resident technician and hacker." Jazz explained. Hashtag gave Arcee an emote of a smiley face. "We're from the special ops unit. Boss bot sent us to provide support for you team."_

" _Boss bot? You mean Optimus Prime sent you?" She asked, idly wondering about the quirky nickname he just gave his commanding officer._

" _Yup! He said something about it being too dangerous to attempt without back-up. We sent a message to you guys to give a heads up." Lickety-Split said._

" _We didn't get any message." Arcee crossed her arms. "Who did you send it to?"_

 _Hashtag's screen showed Cliffjumper's face._

" _Oh." Arcee scowled. Cliffjumper probably told them off thinking that his team could handle the operation by themselves. It was something that good for nothing circuit junkie would do._

" _Since we're down here and you're without your team," Jazz said. "I'm guessing your team is no in a good place right now."_

" _What do you think?" she spat._

" _Looks like our mission parameters have changed." Jazz clapped his hands together with a grin. "Let's go girls!"_

 _Jazz, Lickety-Split and Hashtag walked past a confused Arcee towards the north tunnel. "Where are you going?"_

" _To go save your friends." Jazz answered. "You're welcome to join us."_

" _I don't need your permission." Arcee grumbled, pushing past the trio and marching down the tunnel. The three special officers shared a glance before following after Arcee, vanishing into the darkness of the sewers._

" _Prickly." Jazz muttered._

XXXXXX

"Prickly." Annie unknowingly echoed. "I didn't realize Arcee was that hardcore back then."

"You would be too if your only family was taken from you by war." Jazz sighed and leaned back on his hands. "She was in a dark place. Taking suicide missions along with the Wreckers, doing things that even Bulkhead wouldn't think about. She didn't form any type of permanent relationship with anyone or join any unit out of fear of getting close to some people who might've died on her watch. She was a mess."

"Did she ever consider just…ending it all?" Annie asked softly.

"Thankfully, no. She wasn't that far gone, but she took enough Wrecker missions to make boss bot and Elita-1 worry."

"But, Cee managed to find you, right? So she got better eventually." She said.

"Not immediately." He reminded her. "We had to go through some hoops before we were all buddy-buddy."

"So…what happened next?" Annie leaned towards him excitedly, her earlier sadness forgotten.

XXXXXX

 _The four Autobots drove through the sewers of the Polyhexian aqueducts, following an old map of the underground Hashtag just had stored away in her memory banks. Arcee and Jazz were normal four wheeled cars, Lickety-Split was a hovercycle and Hashtag was a surveillance vehicle._

 _Jazz led the group through the tunnels using the same power lines that transferred power throughout the city, though most of the power was rerouted to the tower's automated defenses. Jazz entered another cistern and switched forms, along with the others. Lickety-Split pointed upwards._

" _This is it." She said, checking her scans._

 _/Are you sure?/ Hashtag asked. /Last time you said that, we ended up in the middle of a Decepticon barracks during lights out./_

 _Lickety-Split glared at Hashtag before huffing and looking away. Jazz chuckled and turned to Arcee. "Arcee, could you do the honors and open the door for us?"_

" _Couldn't we just set some charges and bomb the generators from underneath?" She asked. Jazz shook his head._

" _No go. That station was set to run on serve power separate from the city's main power grid in case something happened, like a terrorist attack or a natural disaster." He explained. "Besides, don't you want to save your friends first?"_

 _Arcee's glare was a definitive yes. She pushed him aside and climbed the ladder, digging her laser swords into the metal cover and carving her way through the metal. Once she was through, they climbed up into the station, where they found themselves in the server room, where the data of past transmissions and recordings that passed through the Grid were stored. Thousands upon thousands of years' worth of data, and they were about to blow it up._

' _Can't help but see this as a waste, but that's war.' Jazz thought. 'Better the servers than a whole city being destroyed.'_

 _He nodded to Hashtag, who knelt down over an access port and plugged a cord from the back of her neck. Suddenly, data began flashing on her screen too fast to decipher._

" _What's she doing?" Arcee asked._

" _Hacking into the station's computer network." Jazz said. "She can download a map of the facility for us so we don't have to go wandering around for your friends."_

 _It only took about a few seconds for Hashtag to fully download the data she needed and when she was done, she unplugged herself and stood up. A detailed map of the station appeared on her screen and she focused on a single location not too far from them, marking the spot with a blinking red dot. Hashtag motioned for them to follow her as she led them to the location and allowed Arcee to take point as they ran out of the server room._

 _The interior of the station was massive, and the corridors were nearly identical. Arcee was thankful they had a map, because unless you worked here, it was hard to tell heads and tails from this place. In her confusion, Arcee turned a corner and nearly ran into two patrolling guards, surprising them._

" _Scrap!" Arcee shot one of the guards in the head, but was too slow to kill the other, who shot her in the shoulder with his blaster. She stumbled back with a hiss, but Lickety-Split leapt over her and whipped her pink laser ribbon, beheading the Con in an elegant display. She kicked the bodies inside a closet and gave Arcee a disappointed look._

" _You can't run headfirst into that, Cee. You'll lose your head like that." She said before continuing down the hall with Hashtag. Arcee huffed, but Jazz gave her a calming pat on the back._

" _Don't worry about it, Cee. It's been a long night for all of us. Myself included!" Jazz laughed. Arcee stared at him like he was insane. "What?"_

" _How can you be so happy at a time like this? With all this god forsaken fighting and killing, how are you able to keep smiling?" She asked._

" _Well, if I'm always frowning like my friend Prowler, then my face would ache and I wouldn't be able to focus on my own." He grinned._

" _Be serious!"_

" _I am! Arcee, if you let the darkness of this war take over, then it doesn't matter who wins. You'll still have that cloud of pain and sadness hangin' over your head. It's not a good feeling to have."_

" _Okay then, wise one, how do you get rid of this cloud?"_

" _Just smile. Think of a happy memory and smile as bright as you can to shine the darkness away." Jazz walked after his teammates. "Don't let this war drag you down, Arcee. You're a strong gal, and not so heavy that you can't pull yourself out of this funk."_

 _Arcee scowled. Smile, she inwardly scoffed, what kind of world is he living in? How can she smile after losing everything in this war? Her home, her friends, her sisters…everything. What was the point of smiling if her reason for doing so was dead and ten feet under?_

XXXXXX

 _Thanks to Hashtag, the group made it to the prison block without any more incidents. Any patrols they did run into were swiftly dealt with by Jazz and Lickety-Split, including the Cons guarding the prison block. Once they were dealt with, Arcee rushed into the cell area and was greeted by the sight of her imprisoned teammates._

" _Arcee! You're alive!" Inferno said, relieved. His rugged appearance suggested that he was roughed up a bit while being taken to his cell. "And you brought help."_

" _Yeah, no thanks to Cliffjumper!" Arcee growled at the mech in question, who just looked away._

" _I thought we could've handled it ourselves." Cliffjumper grumbled._

 _Lickety-Split shut down the laser bars, allowing the mechs to walk out free. Arcee noticed that Dino wasn't there and asked where he was._

" _The so-called "warden" of this place, Thrax, took him away to interrogate him. I have no idea if Dino's even still alive." Mirage said._

 _Arcee frowned and walked towards the door, prompting Lickety-Split to ask, "Where are you going?"_

" _To save my commander." Arcee replied._

 _/Alone?/ Hashtag shook her head. /That's suicide!/_

" _I still have a mission to complete. You three take Mirage, Cliffjumper and Inferno out of this hellhole while I go save Dino and blow this place sky high."_

 _Ignoring the protests of her comrades, Arcee ran out of the room and towards where Thrax would most likely hold Dino for interrogation-right where the bombs were supposed the planted, in the generator room. No doubt the bastard was using the torus shaped generators that power the station as a torture device. As she turned a corner, Arcee noticed Jazz was following her._

" _Don't try to stop me!" She yelled at him._

" _I won't, but you're going to need help!" Jazz said._

" _I don't need your help!"_

 _Jazz leapt onto the wall and flipped over Arcee to land in front of her, forcing her to stop. "But you do. And I'm not leaving you alone to fight Thrax."_

" _Oh just stop it! I've made it this far by myself, and you aren't going to make a damn difference!"_

 _She shoved him aside and walked past him, but Jazz held onto her arm to keep her in place. "Arcee, you can't keep pushing people away. Wallowing in the past will only hold you back."_

" _What do you know about me?" She asked bitterly._

" _I know that you're still hurting from Moonracer's death." He said and felt her tense up. He let go of her arm and walked back in front of her. "I can see it in your eyes. It still haunts you, and you can't forgive yourself for what happened. But Arcee, pushing people away won't make you stronger, you'll just be hurting yourself. And that pain you're feeling in your Spark won't go away, it'll only get worse."_

XXXXXX

Wise words." Annie said softly.

"I learned them from a wise mech." Jazz agreed.

Annie traced her fingers along the runes etched into the smooth golden metal of Mjolnir as she thought deeply. "I can't imagine what Arcee's been through. I've lived with Debbie and Darren all my life, and I think I'd go insane if I lost them. I barely got over seeing my mom die, so I don't think seeing either of my siblings die will go well with me."

"It's not bad to think of your lost loved ones, Annie. The thing is that most people tend to let their grief overrun their lives." Jazz said. "Arcee was probably worse off than you at the time. She didn't have anyone to help her through it."

"Then you came along." Annie smiled.

Jazz smiled back and nodded. "Then I came along."

XXXXXX

 _Jazz and Arcee ran down the corridors towards the heart of the station where Thrax would most likely be holding Dino._

" _We need to hurry." Jazz said. "It'll be a riot once they find the bodies."_

 _Just as he said that, the security alarms went off in a high pitch whine, followed by the sound of dozens of heavy footsteps heading their war. Arcee saw three Vehicons turn the corner around them and sprinted forward, drawing her swords. She leapt over them and beheaded one of them before throwing one of her swords into the second Vehicon's chest. She then grabbed the leader and threw him into the wall, stabbing her sword right under his Spark core._

" _Where's your prisoner?" Arcee growled._

" _Eat slag, cog sucker!" The Vehicon spat. He howled in pain as she twisted the burning hot sword in his abdomen._

" _I won't ask you again. Where is your leader and his prisoner?"_

 _The Vehicon was no stranger to pain, but no one can have a sword stabbed into their innards and remain steadfast. He cracked and gave her the location. Arcee pulled her swords from him and ran down the hall with Jazz covering her flank._

" _Arcee, hold up!" Jazz yelled. "You're running into an ambush!"_

" _I know!" Arcee said. More Vehicons appeared in the hallway and Arcee leapt up onto the wall, pushing off it to gain some leverage to flip over the squad. She dropped a frag grenade right into the middle of their formation and switched to vehicle mode upon landing._

 _The well placed grenade took out half of the Vehicons, but the remaining bots opened fire on Jazz. Against her better judgment, Arcee didn't go back to help him, knowing that they were no match for him. Instead, she drove deeper into the facility, towards the lower levels._

' _Sorry, Jazz,' Arcee thought. 'But I don't have time to wait for you. Dino needs my help and I'm not having another person die on my watch.'_

XXXXXX

 _The power plant fueling the station, and by extension, powering the Grid, was a massive hexagonal chamber underneath the station. There were rows of power conduits made to channel and process the massive amounts of information passing through the Grid, with data storage and categorization being the former duties of the Data caste-this was before Thrax and his Decepticon battalion invaded the city and massacred all but the most essential personnel. Those that were spared were given the "honor" of serving the Decepticon cause and forced to operate the station._

 _Arcee leapt through the long isles of machinery, which were alight with blinking lights and humming from cooling fans spinning inside the monitors. She had a sword in one hand and a pistol in the other. Two Decepticons walked down one of the isles and Arcee rushed behind them, stabbing one through the back and shooting the other in the head. Arcee headed towards the center of this high tech maze, careful to avoid being spotted by the other guards as she reached the generators. Fortunately for her, Arcee found who she was looking for._

" _Dino!" She whispered._

 _Dino looked worse off than the rest of the team. He was missing an eye and had deep lacerations all over his body, leaking energon profusely. His right leg was limp, the circuits in his calves severed and useless, and his left shoulder was burnt and warped from something extremely hot tearing through it. Dino jumped and woke up upon hearing Arcee's voice._

" _A-Arcee?" He coughed._

" _It's me, Dino." Arcee said. "I'm here to free you."_

" _N-no…run." Dino rasped._

" _What?"_

" _Run!"_

 _Arcee heard a thump behind her and instinctively ducked as an axe blade flew over her head, chipping a tiny piece of her cranium as she rolled away to stand in front of Dino protectively._

" _Who are you?" General Thrax growled. He was a surprisingly lithe mech-slender and strong in frame with an equine-like head, and an upper body that had was basically a horse's torso split in half with the front legs folded behind his shoulders. The hind legs sat on his forelegs, which were long and digitigrade. Steam snorted from his nostrils as he demanded who she was. "How did you get in here?"_

" _Like I'd tell you." Arcee replied. She slowly edged back towards Dino, still keeping her eyes on Thrax. "We're leaving this place, and you can't stop us."_

" _So you say." Thrax smirked and snapped his fingers._

 _The torus hanging above the two Autobots switched on and began to glow a bright bluish white. Arcee jumped back as bolts of lightning arced from the torus, but Dino wasn't so lucky. He was restrained to the chair with his legs shut off right under the torus and thus, was at the heart of the energy storm. He screamed as bolts of energy tore at his body, his metallic form naturally drawing electricity to him. Arcee could only watch in horror as Dino's body exploded from the overcharge, splattering parts and energon everywhere._

" _Dino!" Arcee cried. She heard Thrax quietly chuckling behind her and glared at him. "You bastard!"_

" _Did you really think I was just going to let you walk out of my station?" Thrax spun his spear in his hands. "If you thought that, then you're stupider than I thought, Autobot!"_

 _Arcee snarled and charged at Thrax, slashing at him wildly. Thrax swiftly dodged her attacks, deflecting and spinning around her strikes and waited for an opening before launching his own attack. His spear slammed against her swords and Arcee stumbled back for a moment before blocking his next attack. Soon they were engaged in a heated battle._

 _Thrax was a surprisingly competent fighter with actual skill aside from the gladiator battle style most Decepticons sported these days. In fact, Arcee realized, he might've been someone above her level. The ease at which he parried her attacks was too smooth, and he barely broke a sweat fighting her while she was putting more effort into defending herself._

 _Seeing that she wasn't making much progress fighting close quarters, Arcee jumped back and fired her blaster at his head. Thrax ducked under the blasts and pressed a button on his spear, causing the curved blade to shoot off like a projectile connected to the handle by a chain. It wrapped around Arcee's leg and pulled her off balance, causing her to drop her blaster. She fell on her back and Thrax was immediately on her, placing a foot on her chest to pin her in place._

" _You'd think a sane person would steer clear of the most heavily fortified location in the Torus States. But you're Autobots," Thrax growled. "Your kind isn't known for being smart."_

" _You Cons talk a lot for an army of so-called conquerors." Arcee smirked. "Guess thugs like you do take after your leader."_

 _Thrax's eyes blazed and steam spewed from his nose as he raised his spear over her chest. "Say hello to your commander for me."_

 _He thrust his spear down, but then he was forced to use the weapon to deflect three five pointed stars thrown at his head. Snarling, he turned to face his attacker, only to get a kick to the back of his head from Jazz, who then took out a laser staff and slammed it into Thrax's chest to knock him back._

" _Jazz?" Arcee whispered, shocked. He was still in one piece after fighting the Vehicon squad, but his white and red striped body was covered in burns and cuts and dents. Even his curved blue visor was cracked._

" _I'd step away from the lady if I were you." Jazz warned. His voice was hard as stone, lacking any of the warmth and mirth it had earlier._

 _Thrax snorted and retracted the spear point to his staff. "You don't give the orders here, Autobot. You and your friend will die in this place. If not by my hand, then by the army waiting just outside."_

" _You mean the army my crew and I successfully sneaked past already?"_

 _Thrax grunted and leapt at Jazz, swinging his spear in a wide arc at his head. Jazz leaned back so the blade sailed over his nose before jabbing Thrax in the stomach with his staff. Thrax took a step back and slashed his spear, cutting the staff in half. The weapon broke, but then it converted into a pair of nunchucks, which Jazz used to land a series of devastating blows to Thrax's upper body. The blunt weapons slammed into his body with bone shattering force, denting armor, rupturing circuit, and a head strike that briefly caused Thrax's optics to go to static for a second._

 _Thrax soon had enough of this humiliation and fought back when Jazz reeled his arm back for another head strike, crouching low and digging his spear into Jazz's side, cutting through his waist and severing an energon line near his lower torso. Jazz leapt back with a hiss, but Thrax pursued him like a Pneuma-lion that smelled energon. Thrax punched, Jazz blocked, Thrax stabbed, Jazz dodged. They weaved around each other in a tense dance of death of seasoned warriors. They were each trying to find an opening large enough to deal a killing blow. An opening Jazz found._

 _When Thrax went to stab forward, Jazz wrapped his nunchucks around the spear and pulled hard, causing the Con to overextend himself. Those few seconds was just enough to give Jazz enough time to spin into Thrax's guard, slamming his palms into his chest._

 _Arcee had no idea what happened, but she thought she saw some invisible force reverberate through Thrax's body like a ripple through water. Thrax coughed up energon with a wheez and stumbled back, his eyes rolling up into his head before they went dark. He fell to the floor, dead on impact._

" _Holy slag," Arcee gasped. "Is he…dead?"_

" _Yeah. Ruptured the power lines leading to his Spark core and caused an energon build up that exploded his circuits." Jazz explained, holding a hand to his side. "First rule of fighting a cyber-ninja-never fight them if you don't know what they can do."_

 _Arcee wanted to ask how he was able to do that to Thrax with just his hands, but she knew now wasn't the time. They had to get out before the rest of the security team found them._

 _Jazz led her out through the ventilation shafts that were just large enough for them to crawl through. They snuck out of the station through a shaft on the outside and were able to sneak away through the side streets before stopping to rest atop the roof of a building a fair distance from the station. Once she calmed down, Arcee vented her anger._

" _I can't believe this!" Arcee shouted. "Nothing went right on this mission! We were discovered, captured, my team leader is dead, and we weren't able to destroy the damn target!"_

 _Jazz put a hand on her shoulder. "Yeah, that last one? I got it covered."_

 _She stared at him. "Huh?"_

 _Jazz pressed a button on his wrist panel and there was a loud rumble before explosions began blooming around the station. Arcee jumped as a blast wave traveled through the streets and the station tower erupted in a pillar of fire that incinerated everything and everyone inside. The explosion was so great that it caused the small formation the tower was situated to break apart and collapse into the gorge, taking the bridge with it along the way. Few Decepticons were able to escape the explosion, and none could reach the mainland as the cliff face fell into the depths of the canyon below._

" _I littered the databanks with phase charges on my way to rescue you. That's what took me so long." Jazz grinned and beat his chest with a fist. "I didn't forget your mission, Cee. I got your back."_

 _Arcee watched the Polyhexian communications station burn, along with Thrax's body and the Decepticons stationed there. She should've been happy, but Dino's death still weighed on her mind. She was so close to saving him and yet he still died-just like the others._

" _Hey, Cee?" Jazz said. She looked over at him, eyes dark and sad. "I put a request to boss bot to have you transferred to my unit. And he gave the okay."_

" _W-what?" Arcee blinked. "Why…?"_

" _You need help, Arcee. You're broken and hurting, I can see that. Losing friends and family is hard, as it is for everyone. But remember that you have your whole life ahead of you."_

" _My life was over when my sister died!"_

" _But would she want you wallowing in despair like this? Cee, if I were you, I wouldn't want to go out on a suicide mission because of Moonracer. I'd never be able to look her in the eye in the Allspark if something like that happened." Jazz told her seriously._

 _Arcee lowered her gaze, looking at her battle scarred hands. Jazz gave her a soft smile and patted her on the head. "Let me help you as a friend. I know you won't be back to normal, but all scars heal in some way, even mental ones. So…what do you say?"_

 _Arcee took a moment to answer, but her voice was loud and clear when she said, "Okay. I'll join your unit. But I don't think it's going to do my any good."_

" _You being there is already your first step to recovery." Jazz replied. "The rest of the journey is up to you."_

XXXXXX

"After that, Arcee joined my special-ops unit and I took her to Yoketron's dojo. I trained her there, both physically and spiritually, and over the next few deca-cycles, she regained some of that spark she lost after losing Moonracer. Obviously she wasn't a hundred percent, but she was coping. And that's what mattered." Jazz finished his story.

"Then you joined the Ark mission with Optimus, crashed here on Terra," Annie said, and she looked up at him with a smile, her one eye sparkling with a light she hadn't had since waking up. "And here we are."

"Yup." Jazz nodded. "Here we are."

They sat in silence for a few minutes, just enjoying the sounds of nature. Annie wordlessly placed a hand on Jazz's, and he lightly squeezed hers back. No words needed to be said at that time.

XXXXXX

Later that day, Annie sat on Bulkhead's chest in a considerably better mood after eating a hearty lunch and apologizing to Darren and Debbie. She watched his face as always, looking for signs of activity before greeting him. "Hey, Bulk. I hope you're doing okay. It's been rough these past few days, but I'm managing."

She fiddled with Mjolnir a bit before rubbing the spot where her arm was, a habit that was quickly becoming common with her. "Ratchet and Wheeljack are working to make me a new arm for me. It's going to take a while, since neither of them have much experience making prosthetics for tiny fleshies like me and with both of them being so busy lately. I can see all that well out of my other eye and I have some breathing problems that I hope are temporary. My talos is still trashed. So many things are going on at once and it's…scary. I was in a slump for a while, until Jazz just told me this cool story. I'll tell it to you when you wake up. I'm…a bit nervous about getting a new robo-arm, but I'm going to do what you've told me-keep my head up and face it with my fists, er, fist. It's what I plan to do whenever I'm faced with a roadblock like this. Because…I'm a Wrecker," She wiped her eyes. "We don't call for back-up. We call for cleanup."

"That's…my girl…"

Annie's eye shot open and she saw Bulkhead's eyes slightly open, a small grin on his face. More tears streaked down her cheeks.

"Bulkhead!"


	33. The Empire of Corpses

Chapter 33-The Empire of Corpses

Demolishor hit the floor hard, coughing from the hard blow to his chest. Dreadwing stood over him, covered in scratches from their recent fight, with a stone cold expression on his face. They had just finished yet another sparring session, one of many that morning, but the Seeker didn't look the least bit exhausted, at least on the outside. Demolishor, however, had reached his limit.

"Again." Dreadwing said.

Demolishor gritted his teeth and jumped up, throwing a punch that Dreadwing easily dodged. He spun around and kicked Demolishor in the face before pinning his head to the floor.

"Again."

"Dreadwing, stop." Demolishor groaned. "We've been doing this for hours. I've got to rest."

"I said again!" Dreadwing slammed his knee into the mech's face, knocking him onto his back. "We stop only when I say we stop!"

"That's no longer your call to make, Dreadwing."

They both looked up to see Nightshade walking up to them, with Search standing by her foot. Dreadwing glared at her, and she glared right back, until he had the sense to release Demolishor from his hold. The tank Con limped out of the ring with a groan and Search ran to help his partner, but not before flipping Dreadwing the bird. Once they were gone, Nightshade jumped into the ring and marched toward Dreadwing.

"What do you think you're doing?" Nightshade demanded. "We're fighting a war and your first inclination is to beat one of our soldiers within an inch of his life?"

"We were simply sparring. I don't see anything wrong with that." Dreadwing replied.

"That wasn't sparring. That was you venting your anger on a comrade." Nightshade retorted, crossing her arms. Dreadwing grunted and walked past her, but she stopped him with a question. "Where do you think you're going?"

"Back to my quarters, lieutenant."

"I don't recall dismissing you." She said.

"I don't recall asking permission to leave." He replied.

They kept their backs to each other, silently waiting for the other to make their move. The tension between them was so thick that even Rumble could see it. Songbird sat on a ledge nervously watching their interaction, ruffling her steel feathers in agitation. It seems that Dreadwing had finally crossed the line Nightshade drew into the ground without him noticing.

Songbird, as well as everyone else on the ship, was well aware of Dreadwing's declining mood following the death of his brother. He became more aggressive, losing his calm, stoic attitude and becoming more prone to fits of rage and sometimes random acts of violence against his teammates. Nightshade was the first to notice this and convinced Megatron not to take disciplinary action against him, saying that this was just a phase. That Dreadwing was only grieving and would cope with it soon. It only got worse from there.

Songbird was taken from her thoughts when she saw a flash of movement in the ring and saw Nightshade and Dreadwing spin around, throwing a punch at each other. Both punches made contact with the other's cheek and they stumbled back at the same time. Dreadwing roared and charged at Nightshade, unleashing a quick combo of punches and kicks at her. Nightshade either dodged of deflected his attacks before slipping through his guard and landing an uppercut to his chin. She rushed forward and leapt up, slamming a knee into his face three times before thrusting her elbow down onto his head. Dreadwing stumbled, but he recovered and pushed her back with a palm thrust to her chest.

'I've never actually seen them fight before.' Songbird thought. Both Cons were well-trained fighters, and this little match showed off their skills perfectly. The Minicon femme knew that this was no simple fight. This was Nightshade giving him a dose of discipline to gauge his mental state. Talking won't do anything here-only fists will suffice.

Dreadwing blocked a punch aimed at his face, but Nightshade tried to scratch his face with her sharp claws. He grabbed her arm and threw her over his shoulder, but she twisted her body and wrapped her legs around his waist, using her weight to flip Dreadwing over onto his back. He tried to get back up, but she smacked his fist away and slammed her knee into the side of his head to knock him back down. She mounted him and began unleashing a flurry of strong punches on his face and chest non-stop. When she started drawing energon, she stopped and stood back up.

Dreadwing laid on the floor groaning and bleeding from his face. Nightshade stood over him, unresponsive to his pain.

"You wanted to fight so badly? Well here you go, you have one. Now get up." She said. When he failed to follow her order, she kicked him in the side. "I said get up."

Dreadwing glared at her through a cracked optic lens.

"GET UP!"

Dreadwing shouted and lunged at her. With inhuman speed, Nightshade drew her swords and held them against his neck, ready to behead him on the spot, making him freeze.

"It doesn't feel so good when you're the one getting beat down, does it?" Nightshade whispered, staring right into his eyes. "This tantrum of yours is over. You better shape up or else."

"Or else what?" Dreadwing asked.

"Or else Megatron gets involved, and he'll make sure that you're set straight…and that you'll need a cane to walk again." She said. She sheathed her swords and left the ring. "Go clean yourself up and cool down. You're no use to anyone stewing in your own anger."

She left him there, alone and wounded in more ways than one. When she left the room, Nightshade shook her head with a weary sigh. Dealing with grief was never easy, especially for the proud.

XXXXXX

Dreadwing stood atop a Cliffside far from civilization, standing at elevated levels no human could hope to reach through climbing. The air was cool and fresh, and the harsh temperatures and violent winds didn't affect him. Nightshade told him to cool down, so his was what he was doing, and it was working…to a degree. He will never get over losing his brother, not completely. The pain in his Spark was not something Megatron or Nightshade could understand. This was a connection few cybertronians experience in their lifetimes.

For a race of robotic organisms who reproduce asexually, the concept of a biological family was a foreign concept. Most cybertronians were born as single Sparks, but there were a handful of people who were born in pairs. Cybertronian twins were not so uncommon that they were rare, but they were an oddity amongst the community. They were born when the Spark would split in half equally, either upon igniting in a hot spot or during maturation. Cybertronians born this way were considered to be siblings, and Dreadwing and Skyquake were one such pair.

Despite his feelings, Dreadwing didn't particularly have a strong love for his twin. Skyquake was impulsive and quick to anger, a polar opposite to his calmer brother. Dreadwing had little tolerance for Skyquake's tantrums and they often clashed heads. They were a solid team, however, and had survived countless battles by working together, sharing a sense of battlefield honor that put them above normal Seeker standards. Death was not something to be feared or abhorred, but to them, a perfect death was in battle at the hands of a worthy opponent.

Part of Dreadwing's rage was because his twin, his other half, did not meet an honorable death. He died at the hands of humans, filthy little creatures smaller and weaker than him. This was only made worse by the pain. Being split from the same Spark, twins were intimately connected on a mental and physical level thought to mythical among human twins. This bond allowed them to feel each other's pain to an extent, and Dreadwing felt it all. That brief but vivid moment of pain followed by an agonizing emptiness brought about by his brother's death. Such a thing would take years to adjust to, but Dreadwing didn't have years. He couldn't just let this go, bury it under layers of military discipline. This was personal.

Dreadwing heard a sonic boom in the distance and looked up to see Thundercracker's blue form flying over him. Thundercracker must have noticed him too, as he circled around and flew over to the cliff Dreadwing stood on. In one smooth movement, he switched forms and landed beside Dreadwing.

"Dreadwing, what are you doing here?" Thundercracker asked.

"Thinking." Dreadwing answered curtly. Thundercracker waited for him to say more, but realized that's all Dreadwing had to say.

"So…nice view up here." He noted. "As much as this planet infuriates me, it certainly has some damn good sights."

"I didn't come here to sightsee, Thundercracker."

"I know, I know, I was just…making an observation." Thundercracker winced at the awkwardness of the moment. What do you say to someone who's lost a brother? "Hey, are you…"

"What were you doing just now?" Dreadwing asked.

"I was practicing."

"Practicing?"

"With my sonic boom ability."

Dreadwing nodded, knowing what he meant. Thundercracker could generate sonic booms from his body in both his bipedal and alternate forms, though they were generally out of control and hard to direct in a single direction. He rarely saw him use it in battle, though, and he figured that it was why Starscream kept Thundercracker close for so long-having two outliers as bodyguards would make most people think twice about messing with you.

"I'm good at it, but I've never really used it that much. It's hard controlling it in such a way that I don't get my own allies caught up in the boom." Thundercracker continued. "Most people think I'm an outlier, but Knockout says that it might not be my power at all, since it hasn't evolved since I manifested it."

Dreadwing grunted and looked out into the horizon. Thundercracker sighed and decided to take the plunge.

"Dreadwing, look…I know it's hard. Losing Skyquake and all. Believe me, I've lost my fair share of-"

"You know nothing!" Dreadwing shouted, spinning around to glare at the Seeker. "This isn't some kind of misguided Seeker loyalty among Starscream's dogs. This is a bond between blood brothers, a bond that was broken. That pain I feel, the agony of my brother's demise and the emptiness in my Spark that followed will not fade away! That silence will remain with me for the rest of my life!"

"I know, and I'm sorry for digging into this, but I just want to help. We're Seeker, rulers of the sky. It's my obligation to at least show my support-"

"What support? You're Starscream's lapdog, his little follower who'd even help him commit treason in broad daylight." Dreadwing said scathingly. "Don't try to act like you're your own person, because no matter what you do, all you are is just Starscream's clone. Something to look at when he wants to see his reflection!"

"That's enough, Dreadwing!" Nightshade's beast form glided down between them and glared at him. She jerked her head to Thundercracker. "Give us some time alone. I need to have a talk with your commander."

Thundercracker nodded and changed forms before flying away. Seeing him gone, Nightshade turned to the still fuming Dreadwing, who was just starting to calm down.

"My apologies, lieutenant. I don't know what came over me." He said, looking a bit guilty for snapping at Thundercracker like that.

"I do. You're in pain, and your emotions are all over the place. It's unhealthy and detrimental to team morale when everyone snaps at each other like rabid dogs." Nightshade transformed and stood before him. "Skyquake is dead. There is no getting around that. It hurts, I know, but that's war. Even you two should've known that there was a good chance that either one of you could die in battle. You're no stranger to death."

"You are correct, lieutenant, my behavior is unbecoming of me. It's just the mere thought of my brother being slain by humans…those vermin who have no place in our war." Dreadwing shook his head. "The very thought angers me beyond my restraints."

"Get used to it. The natives on this rock are as annoying as the creatures that live in the wilderness. More of our kind will probably have humiliating deaths before we burn this planet." She said and sighed. "Look, don't let this cause you to charge into your doom. You're the first decent Seeker commander since Typhon. We can't go losing you now."

Dreadwing nodded. "Of course, lieutenant."

Nightshade heard an alert on her comm and switched it on. "This is Nightshade."

" _Nightshade, there's been a Minicon activation coming from the middle of the Pacific Ocean."_ Megatron said. _"I want you and Dreadwing to retrieve the panel before the Autobots locate the signal."_

"We'll move out at once, Megatron." Nightshade said and looked at Dreadwing. "Looks like you'll get a chance to vent your anger after all."

The two Cons transformed and flew off into the sky, flying straight into the ground base had sent them and traveled to their destination.

XXXXXX

The coordinates landed them somewhere in the Pacific near the Sunehra subcontinent. Nightshade and Dreadwing emerged from the ground bridge into a thick fog cloud. They were forced to rely on their radar to guide them toward their destination.

"Is it normally this foggy in this area?" Dreadwing asked.

"Sunehra's known for its monsoon season, but this fog is strange, especially this far out at sea. I don't recall fog banks forming over large bodies of water this far from land before." Nightshade said. "Songbird, do you detect anything?"

"No, Mistress, I'm not detecting the panel's signal yet." Songbird said.

Which meant that the panel was either farther away than they thought or it was underwater. Nightshade didn't fancy a swim, and hoped it was just the former.

They flew in silence for a while until they heard a loud whooshing sound in the distance. Dreadwing was the first to notice the large shadow fall over them and heard a loud roar break the silence.

"Dragon!" Nightshade yelled as the massive reptilian beast appeared out of the clouds. These creatures were usually native to Europa and Usea, but it was strange to see this animal flying so far away from land. Granted, right now she was more worried about being burned into slag by the dragon's flames. "Take evasive action!"

The two Cons increased their speed to escape the dragon, who seemed intent on running them down. Despite its large size, the beast was surprisingly agile in the air and easily kept up pace with them. It exhaled huge bursts of flame at them that they were forced to dodge, and when it got close enough, it would try to snatch one of them in its massive jaws.

Songbird, powerlinked to Nightshade, prayed that they got out in one piece, risking a glance back at the dragon. It took her only a few seconds to see the dragon, and she immediately knew someone was wrong. The dragon's scales looked too soft to be plated scales capable of deflecting small arms and blades. In fact, upon closer look, they didn't look like scales at all, instead it looked like…skin. Yes, skin, with sunken eyes that looked rotted around the edges and misshapen teeth sprouting from black gums. This beast looked less like a dragon and more like a reptilian corpse still in decay.

"Mistress-"

"Not now, Songbird."

"But Mistress," Songbird gasped as a large mountain suddenly appeared out of the fog before them. "Look out!"

Dreadwing tried to pull up, but in his haste, he accidentally bumped into Nightshade, throwing her off balance and almost knocking her into the fire stream the dragon shot at them. To Dreadwing's horror, Nightshade took the brunt of the fire blast and she fell like a falling star, smoke trailing off her body. Dreadwing spun around and transformed, firing his cannons into the dragon's open mouth just as it prepared to fire another blast. The laser blasts hit its combustible innards and the dragon began choking and coughing.

Dreadwing flew toward Nightshade and Songbird, catching the Minicon with one arm while grabbing hold of Nightshade to pull her into his body. They crashed into a small forest below, smashing through the trees and fell out of sight.

As for the dragon, it crashed into the side of the mountain and hit the ground face first, exploding from the buildup of flammable gases in its body that ignited prematurely. A pillar of flames rose high into the sky as the area rumbled from the explosion, but after a few seconds, an invisible wave of force swept across the land and snuffed out the inferno before it could spread.

In a heartbeat, silence returned to the island, but it wouldn't be long before it was alive with the screams and roars of its monstrous inhabitants, eager for a chance to meet their new visitors.

XXXXXX

"I fragging hate dragons." Nightshade hissed as she flexed her burnt wings, which stung painfully from the fire blast that hit her. Songbird hopped over to her, her body lightly singed, but in better condition than Nightshade.

"Mistress, are you okay?" She asked.

"Define okay." Nightshade grunted and slowly sat up. Dreadwing limped over to her.

"Can you transform?" He asked.

"Let me see." Nightshade tensed up as she spun her T-cog and her body slowly, painfully reconfigured from her beast mode. Ignoring the stinging pain in her wings, she managed to fully convert into her bipedal form and sat on her knees, forcing her wings to fold up on her back. When she was done, she stood up with a grimace. "That was harder than I thought."

"Should we call the base for medical assistance?" Songbird asked.

"Don't bother. I've tried calling Knockout but I can't get in contact with him or home base." Dreadwing said. "And we still can't get a fix on the panel's signal."

"Stuck on an isolated island with no way to contact base while wounded in the middle of a…white forest?" Nightshade blinked as she finally noticed that the trees around them weren't green but white. She walked over to one and ran a finger along the trunk, recoiling in shock when she felt the material. "What is this?"

"What's wrong?" Dreadwing walked over to her.

"This isn't even wood. It's bone!"

The trees around them were pale white and harder than wood, showing that they were in fact made of bone. As the fog slowly lifted, they got a better look at their macabre surroundings. The trees around them were made of bone in place of bark, with long, skinny branches that looked like multi-jointed human arms-which they definitely were just that. Dreadwing's face drew back in disgust as he ran his hand along the trunk of another tree, feeling interwoven tendons and muscles coated in bone tissue. He even felt the faint beating of a heart inside the trunk, pumping what could only be blood throughout the "tree".

"Correction, isolated on an island where all the flora are made from human organs and body parts." Nightshade growled. "Frag me."

"Lieutenant, this place…I may not have been on this planet as long as you have, but even I know this isn't normal." He said.

"I know. Which means that something or someone did this." She replied.

Songbird eyed the leaves that were shaped like human hands warily before hopping onto Nightshade's shoulder. "Mistress, what should we do?"

"What we came here to do. Find the Minicon." Nightshade said.

"Lieutenant, we still have no way of locating it." Dreadwing protested.

"No, but we do have somewhat of an idea of the area it might be in. Songbird, try to pinpoint it's location from the sky." She said and sent the Minicon on her way. "If I'm going to have nightmares from this place, it might as well be worth it."

Dreadwing frowned, but followed her lead anyway. He tried to ignore the palm eyes following his every move until they reached the deeper parts of the forest, only then did the palm eyes slowly closed shut, as if falling asleep.

XXXXXX

The sounds of breaking bones and muscle tissue tearing filled the empty cave, followed by the heavy sound of blood hitting the ground in gallons. Screams then echoed throughout the cave, but that was it. Pain, but no death. Death was an illusion on this island. It was just a concept, nonexistent for the inhabitants of this island…so long as she ruled. Their bodies belonged to her. Their souls were her jewels and their bones were her tools of trade. Their flesh and blood were simply building materials.

Here, in the depths of the hidden sanctum called Gehenna, she was queen. Alone and isolated, she had no one to occupy her time with. No idol to worship, no family to call her own. Her people were scattered across this world, hidden among its populace, whispering into mankind's ear to guide them toward a shared future of dominance and subjugation. She didn't mind being alone. It allowed her to test the limits of mortality and its prison called flesh. Here, she was a goddess, the ruler of the empire of corpses. All flesh was her weapon, her materials from which she crafted this fine island paradise into her own domain.

No one knew of this island's existence, at least not anymore. Those who did manage to leave here alive never came back, afraid of joining the former natives as another one of her flesh dolls. This left her free to perform her magic as much as she wanted…until the aliens came.

It was surprising to find not one, or two, but three unknown life signatures appear within her barrier, but unsurprisingly, they were members of that accursed race of mechanical monstrosities that had turned the entire galaxy into their battleground. They sought to turn this world into another one of their conquests, and if they learned of what she had on this island, then they'll ruin everything. And she couldn't have that.

Releasing the flayed human man from her bloody grasp, the alien sorceress known as Zia stood from her altar and began preparations to eliminate the intruders. Raising her four hands, they glowed with purple energy as she cast her spell, channeling energy into the earth itself so that she may contact her subjects.

 _Seek out the metal men. Find them. Kill them. Leave nothing behind._

She heard the sounds of a hundred roars and cries that filled the night air and her lipless mouth smiled in glee. They will not have her. Not today. She'll make fine examples out of them.

"Go, my pets. Let the Carnival of Flesh begin!"

XXXXXX

Nightshade, Dreadwing and Songbird traveled deeper into the bone forest, and as they went deeper into the island, the more unsettling their environment became. It was as if the plants were substituted for human limbs and organs. Trees made of bone and tissue, complete with a cardiovascular system that pumped blood like tree sap, even with its own set of lungs. What was even more twisted were the mouths sprouting from the ground around those trees licking up the blood that would seep into the soil and whisper sweet nothings to no one. All the while, those palm eyes watching their every movement, not even blinking.

'As if this planet couldn't disgust me further.' Dreadwing thought with a scowl.

"Don't look at them."

"Hm?" Dreadwing turned to Nightshade. "Lieutenant?"

"If you look at them, they'll only get worse. Ignore the eyes, ignore the whispers, focus on the mission." She said, staring forward.

"Speaking from experience?"

"This is nothing compared to what I've experienced last year. A dolem saw fit to mess with my memories and I tore that bastard apart." Nightshade glanced back at him. "I don't know who is behind this, but don't let it get to you. After a while, such tricks will stop having an effect on you."

"Easy for you to say, mistress." Songbird muttered. Nightshade flicked her on the head.

They tracked the panel's signal to the central region of the island, near the mountain that towered over the entire landmass. Then they would have to contend with searching said area for the panel, which was difficult without knowing its exact location. Unfortunately, they had other problems to worry about, as Nightshade and Dreadwing soon discovered.

"Do you feel that?" She asked.

"I do." Dreadwing said, reaching back to get his cannon. "The ground…it's vibrating."

"Those are footsteps. Something big is heading our way." Nightshade said before pushing forward. "We need to get moving. This isn't the ideal place to be ambushed in."

They ran through the forest and into a clearing that had white grass that looked more like bony fingertips growing from the ground. Nightshade and Dreadwing stood back to back as they felt the vibrations get stronger. Dreadwing took out his cannon while Songbird powerlinked with Nightshade. As the ground began to tremble, they saw a bunch of large shapes rushing through the forest toward their position. When they entered the clearing, their appearance shocked and horrified the two Cons.

"Humans?" Nightshade exclaimed.

The creatures that approached them certainly looked like humans, but that was where the similarities ended. These creatures were over twenty feet tall, though some were larger while others were smaller. Their skin was deathly white, like a corpse, with eyes that stared sightless and glazed over. They were all naked as the day they were born, but were completely clean of any dirt or grime. Most of the giants were no different from regular humans, but there were others that had deformities such as overly large heads, elongated arms, jaws that were stuck in wide grins, bulged out bellies, short legs that couldn't even support their weight and so on. They lumbered forward like puppets, wobbly and uncoordinated, lacking the intelligence to do anything other than just stand there and look at their prey.

"Okay, I'm really starting to hate this island." Nightshade said.

It was hard to tell their exact numbers, but there were enough giants to completely surround the Cons. Nightshade and Dreadwing prepared themselves for an attack, but the monsters didn't move. They all just stood there in a circle, watching them. Dreadwing tensed up when he heard the giants growling fill the night air.

"What are these monsters?" He whispered.

"I don't have a clue, but be on your guard." Nightshade replied. Something told her that it was only a matter of time before these giants swarmed them. They had no weapons, but their strength and numbers alone could serve to overpower them if they all come at them at once. Impatient and already done with this island, Nightshade raised her rail gun and yelled, "Are you ugly bastards just going to stand there or are we going to-"

One of the giants, a small ten foot midget with a disgusting grin and oversized head leapt at Nightshade. One blast from her rail gun was enough to completely blast its skull apart in a bloody shower. That first shot was the signal the giants needed as they roared and charged at them.

The two Decepticons opened fire on the giants. They rotated in a circle as the giants came at them from all around them, shredding their bodies apart with a barrage of laser blasts that easily tore apart their flesh. Taking them down wasn't the problem, however, it was their numbers. It only took a couple of minutes for the giants to slowly close the distance between them and the Cons before Nightshade and Dreadwing were forced to change to a different tactics.

Nightshade took out her swords and began slashing at the giants, quickly targeting their vital points to kill them quickly before moving onto the next group of giants. Dreadwing was also taking his fair share of flesh, using his sword to swiftly cut down multiple giants in wide reaching arcs that killed multiple targets. He also threw a couple of bombs into the ravenous horde and detonated them to great effect, further killing more of them.

Nightshade heard a loud screech and saw a giant with long skinny arms and long bony fingers running at her with a mad cackle. It thrusts its arms at her, but she dodged them before severing the giant's arms and then its head in three quick slashes.

"We need to move! We'll be overrun if we stay here!" She called out.

"Head to the forest. We can pick them off in there!" Dreadwing said. He flew into the air and threw down three more bombs to blast them apart, opening a path of escape for them.

Nightshade and Dreadwing quickly ran into the forest with the giants closing in on them. It was a truly horrifying sight that no human could coherently think up without having a macabre sense of humor. A stampede of cannibalistic giants running through the dark forest, eyes gleaming hungrily, teeth gnashing, jaws biting. A few would even leap at them, but Dreadwing cut them into bloody ribbons before they could even descend.

Drawing Gandiva, Nightshade spun around yelling, "Get down!"

Dreadwing ducked behind a tree just as Nightshade fired her arrow. The dark forest was briefly illuminated by the explosion of Gandiva's energy arrow and body parts from both the giants and the trees flew everywhere. Nightshade didn't stop shooting until the entire section of the forest was in flames from her arrows, and the ground was littered with body parts and soaked in blood. As the entire forest was covered in smoke and the remaining trees were set on fire, Nightshade looked for anymore giants to kill, thankfully seeing none.

"This is ridiculous." Nightshade panted. "We're no closer to finding that damn panel and now someone's trying to kill us."

"And we have no idea who this someone is." Dreadwing sighed. He folded up his sword and put it away as he looked around. There were still trees that weren't destroyed in the inferno, though they were heavily damaged. As expected, the sight of them was sickening and grotesque. The tree trunks were shattered and damaged, and Dreadwing could see the exposed lungs from within a burning tree, gasping for air while it's ruptured heart spewed blood like a fountain. Something fell by his feet and he looked down to see Skyquake's head staring up at him.

"Ah!" Dreadwing screamed and leapt back into another tree, almost knocking it over.

Nightshade heard him and looked at the frightened Seeker. "Dreadwing? What's wrong?"

Dreadwing glanced at her and she saw the slightly crazed look in his eyes. He looked like a frightened protoform seeing the darkness of the world for the first time. Looking back down, Dreadwing saw that same head, only it was just a regular human head from a decapitated giant. He scowled and stomped on it, smashing the head into a bloody paste while burying it into the dirt. He swung his arm and smashed apart the tree next to him, glaring at all the eyes staring at him.

"You think you can scare me? I am a Decepticon warrior!" Dreadwing roared. "We instill fear in our enemies. We are FEAR!" He punched the tree again, digging his fingers into the bone cartilage and tissue underneath. "Your games won't do a thing against me! Show yourself like a true warrior instead of hiding behind your army of savages!"

"Stop it, Dreadwing!" Nightshade hissed. She ran up to him and slapped him hard in the face. "Stop acting so hysterical, you fool. I told you to ignore this island's tricks."

"But…"

"Skyquake is dead, Dreadwing. Get used to it, because nothing's going to change. He is one with the Allspark now, but you are still alive, and you have a duty to perform. And I can't exactly use you if you're jumping at shadows." She said and looked away with a tired sigh. "You think you're the only one who's lost someone? Thousands of Decepticons have lost people they've cared about in this damn war. I've had a reputation built on losing people under my command. My lover was one of those people and the list just grows from there. So don't think that acting like a caveman is going to bring your brother back, because all you're doing is dishonoring him!"

Dreadwing stared at her with a shocked expression, hardly expecting a pep talk from Megatron's first lieutenant. It wasn't hard to realize that she had her own fair share of demons, some deeper than others. Suddenly he realized that compared to her, his pain was rather miniscule. It was humbling in a sense.

Suddenly Songbird gave a sharp cry and flew onto Nightshade's shoulder. "Mistress, I've found the Minicon we're looking for! It's signal is not too far away from our position."

"Already?" Nightshade said. "How did you…?"

"The signal appeared just now, from the mountain at the heart of the island." Songbird said.

Nightshade and Dreadwing looked up at the tall mountain in the distance. They gave each other hardened looks before transforming (slowly for Nightshade) and flying towards the mountain. It was time to get this mission finished.

XXXXXX

"So they survived my dolls." The sorceress hummed, her voice tinged with agitation. "Very well, let them come. I'll kill them both and make a throne from their bodies."

She walked over to her altar and picked up the small, glowing green object that she found not too long ago. Judging from the time the object starting glowing and the arrival of the aliens, this strange object was clearly related to them.

"They'll learn soon enough what happens to intruders who try to steal from my island." She cackled. What she would do to them will be truly legendary.

XXXXXX

Nightshade and Dreadwing flew circles around the mountain inn an attempt to find an entry point they can flying into, but so far they found nothing. They kept a sharp eye out for any undead dragons or any other flying monstrosity, but they were in the clear…for now. Songbird was still detected the panel's signal from the mountain, but that was as far as she could detect.

"Lieutenant."

"What?"

"If you don't mind me asking…what happened to your lover?" Dreadwing asked softly. When Nightshade's avian head turned to him with narrowed eyes, he quickly apologized. "Apologies, lieutenant, I didn't mean to pry."

Nightshade looked away, turning back to the mountain. "He's…gone."

"Gone? As in…he's passed?"

"In a way." She answered vaguely. "At the very least…he's dead to me."

"There! I see an opening." Songbird lead them to a small cave opening near the peak of the mountain that was facing the western side of the island.

Nightshade and Dreadwing flew onto the small cliff and entered the cave. They switched their optical settings to infrared, but the increased visibility didn't help with the oppressive, unsettling atmosphere they felt. Decepticon military training didn't really account for situations like this.

They walked through the tunnel and exited onto a steep slope that led down to a massive chamber that looked like it was carved. Out by something big. Just as they got to the edge to slide down to the bottom, a fire blast hit the ledge, destroying it.

"Scatter!" Nightshade yelled and they jumped apart just as a large serpentine dragon called a drake came slithering out of the darkness, its bony white skin immediately giving its nature away as it snapped its jaws at them. "I'm so sick of dragons!"

The drake hissed and lunged at her, but she twisted her body around its head and grabbed onto the horns sprouting from its skull. She swung herself onto its back and stabbed her swords into the back of its neck. Dreadwing peppered its body with laser blasts, chipping off its bone armor and damaging the flesh underneath. It thrashed its long, slender body and managed to clip Dreadwing with its tail, slamming him into the ground. Nightshade continued carving into its neck and didn't let go even as it struggled.

"Just die!" She screamed and pumped as much energon into her arms as possible to give her the strength to cut through the bone and into the fleshy parts. It didn't take long to kill the beast after carving up its muscles and ripping out its spine. She jumped off it as it slammed head first into the ground and kicked it away. "Fragging lizard. I'm wiping out your species when Megatron conquers this planet."

Dreadwing got back to his feet, rubbing his sore back. "That was a little easier than I thought."

"That was just a welcoming present, honored guests."

Nightshade and Dreadwing spun around to the heart of the cavern where a giant stone effigy stood. It was a faceless being with multiple arms with a green bonfire flickering at the base of the statue. Before the flame stood a tall figure who welcomed the Cons with open arms. Dreadwing's eyes widened as he finally saw the one behind the madness on the island.

"You're…you're not human." He said surprised.

Indeed, the ruler of this horrible island wasn't human at all. She had deathly pale skin and four arms with bony protrusions along those arms sticking out of her skin. Her head was round, sporting four tiny red eyes, two on each side, and a large mouth full of sharp teeth. Her body was slender, almost to the point of being skinny, and she wore a red robe embroidered with gold symbols.

"A Dire Wraith." Nightshade scowled.

"How very observant of you, Decepticon. You can call me Zia." The Dire Wraith said in a scratchy voice. "I must say, I never expected to see a cybertronian on this world of all places. A bit out of the way, don't you think?"

"What the hell are you doing here, Wraith?" Nightshade demanded. "Was interfering in our business two hundred years ago not enough?"

"That wasn't my fault, though I hear you Decepticons were more forthcoming for an alliance than we were." Zia laughed.

"Where are your friends? I know you creatures don't travel alone, so you all must be hiding amongst the humans."

"We are, and I'm not telling you a single thing, little robot." Zia replied. "Why should I, when you two intruded upon my territory to steal my treasures. My reaction to your presence was more than warranted."

"Silence, beast." Dreadwing pointed his cannon at her. "Relinquish the panel and we will let you live with your sick playthings."

"Sick? Boy, this island and the humans that once lived on it are my children. I've spent decades playing with them, testing the limits of their mortality, seeking ways to mold their souls and bodies into something that could never be beaten. I do all of this for my beloved god, the Presence!" She shouted. "Who are you to order me around after you've wasted your lives fighting a meaningless war? I'll teach you your place!"

Zia clapped her hands together and a bright green flash exploded from her body. Energy surged throughout the cave and blew Nightshade and Dreadwing back. Inside the green dome of energy, Zia's body grew to gigantic proportions. In just a few seconds her body exploded from a meager 8 feet to a startling 24 feet. She didn't even wait for the energy discharge to die down before running at them with astounding speed.

Nightshade fired an arrow from Gandiva, but Zia dodged it and rammed her shoulder into Nightshade's chest. Before the femme could be knocked back, Zia's upper right arm grabbed her face and slammed her to the ground. Dreadwing fired his cannon at her, but Zia summoned an energy shield to block the laser blasts.

"Your toys are no match for the arcane, boy!" Zia spat. Her two left hands formed a hand sign and Dreadwing was hit in the chest by a compressed ball of force that blasted him off his feet. "You two won't be the first cybertronians I've killed, but you will make the grandest of trophies-gah!"

Zia reeled back as Nightshade severed her hand with a sword she took out while Zia was distracted. Nightshade kicked Zia in the knee and slashed at hear head, but Zia blasted Nightshade in the chest and blasted her into the wall. Zia grabbed the sword that she dropped and stabbed the blade into Nightshade's stomach, pinning her to the wall.

Dreadwing charged at her from behind with his sword, and as she spun around to fire another spell at him, he spun around her outstretched arm and brought his sword down on her arm, severing it at the elbow. Dreadwing spun around for a follow up attack, but Zia caught his arm and forced him to his knees, glaring into his face with blazing eyes.

"You cybertronians think you're so powerful, until someone your size comes along and puts you in your place." Zia hissed, slowly overpowering Dreadwing in a show of strength as she tried to wrestle the sword from him. "You think you're untouchable, but you're not. Death comes for all creatures, and you machines are no different!"

"You're right," Dreadwing said, struggling against her. "We're not!"

Dreadwing let go of his sword and jumped up, slamming his fist into the side of Zia's face. The punch nearly shattered her jaw bone and sent her tumbling across the ground. Dreadwing ran over to Nightshade, quickly pulling the sword from her body in a gush of energon and helping her down. They looked up to see Zia on her knees, cradling her fractured jaw, in pain and disoriented.

"This ends now." Nightshade coughed and raised her hand. Gandiva flew into her grasp and she pointed it at Zia, pulling the string back to manifest an arrow.

Zia saw the silvery glow of Gandiva and hastily put up a barrier, though it would do no good against a bow of the gods. Nightshade released the arrow and let it fly. It shot across the cavern like a lightning bolt and completely pierced through the dire wraith's barrier, piercing her chest and obliterating her heart. Zia's last sight was Nightshade's grinning face before her body exploded in a brilliant burst of white flames.

The entire cavern shook from the explosion, but it soon calmed down once the destruction was over. All that was left of Zia were a few burnt remains lying all over the ground. Nightshade spat at the smoldering pile of flesh that was once the dire wraith's head.

"Go tell your god that he can go frag himself."

XXXXXX

Songbird found the panel on the altar dedicated to Zia's god. After getting the panel, the three Cons quickly exited the cave and went back outside onto the cliff, where they were greeted by the morning sun rising in the horizon. Nightshade and Dreadwing took a moment to look over the island, marveling at how the island slowly started changing. The white trees turned to green, the ugly human plant life composed of organs and limbs slowly changed into regular plant life. Nature was taking over again now that the dire wraith's magic was no longer influencing it. Though they were now free, Dreadwing noticed Nightshade's troubled expression.

"What's wrong, Lieutenant?" He asked. "We've managed to retrieve the panel."

"Yes, we've won, but the fact that a dire wraith was on this planet for so long troubles me." Nightshade said. "How many are on Terra if that's the case?"

"Are they truly that worrisome?"

"There's a reason Megatron doesn't want our forces fooling around on the outer arms of the galaxy. There's a war of a different nature going on in the outer edges of the galaxy, and the dire wraiths are a result of that conflict. After seeing what kind of damage they can do, it's best we be wary." She sighed and turned back to the horizon.

Dreadwing stared at Nightshade's gleaming form in the sunlight before clearing his throat. "Lieutenant, I want to thank you. I apologize for my earlier behavior and I promise it won't happen again."

"Think nothing of it, Dreadwing." Nightshade said, waving him off with a small smile. "A warrior must have a mind as clear as a freshwater spring, but even the most steadfast of us are only mortal. Losing someone we love is a heavy burden no matter what we are."

Dreadwing saw her melancholy expression coming through and looked away. He lightly grabbed her hand, showing his support, and though Nightshade showed no reaction to his advance, she didn't shake his hand off either.

After spending an entire night fighting untold horrors born from alien arcane arts, it was nice to just sit back and enjoy the rising sun. Who knew standing in the light could be so comforting?

* * *

 **I would've gotten this out sooner but the original file got corrupted, so I had to type this one from scratch. Ugh. Well, at least this turned out good. Just one**

 **more chapter before the final story arcs in this book, and then I can show you guys the new stuff! Thanks for reading and please leave a review!**


	34. I am Sara

Chapter 34-I am Sara

Sara was a third generation android with high combat abilities. Her body was designed to emulate a human's as closely as possible, with an endosteel skeleton encased within a carbon fiber musculature wrapped in a protective yet flexible epidermis with an added layer of mesh that acts like skin, with external solar cells that look like long strands of hair. She harbored at least three integrated weapons and had the strength of three men. Her mind was a highly advanced cyber-brain with faster processing speed than the world's current fastest internet search engine and her body was powered by what could be classified as a "heart". She was smarter and more powerful than the so-called drones of the modern age, and definitely smarter than the average human (save for possibly Gina and, to an extent, Penny).

But for the life of her, she couldn't figure out the anomaly that was human art. Sure, she understood more coherent paintings like portraits, landscapes, and even surrealist artwork. But the form of art known as "Abstract" puzzled her to no end.

XXXXXX

The thoughts of her own immortality plagued Sara on her way back to Gina's house. Imagination was needed, and it came from a small little something that could be seen or touched. Feelings, hobbies, fears, dislikes, emotions Sara had some idea about, but rarely experienced herself. She existed only for one purpose and that was to protect Gina. Anyone or anything that got in her way of completing that duty was her enemy and must be eliminated.

"Welcome home!" Greeted Theodore Harkins, father of Gina. He was sitting in the living room reading a few books on the Ancient Alien theory. After getting acquainted with the Autobots, Theo had been obsessed with learning more about the oddities often overlooked by other archaeologists in ancient history, namely the Arian culture that predominated Terra.

"Hi dad!" Gina jogged over to her father and gave him a big hug.

"Hello, Sara," Julia greeted the android from the stairs. The Harkins matriarch was always warm to her mechanical guests, probably because they were so close to Gina and risked much in keeping her safe during her numerous afterschool "activities". "How are you?"

"I am fine." Sara answered honestly. Physically at least. Emotionally, she was another story.

Watching Gina interact with her parents sent a small pang of emotion rushing through her. Parents, siblings, family. Concepts Sara never knew. She had no biological family obviously, as she only saw her creator as the closest thing to a mother she could be. But biological familial bonds were more special to her. They were deeper and sacred than bonds between soldiers or warriors. Sara was aware that her mother was in the process of creating another android like her, a little sister to give her company. Knowing that she might never know this sister of hers made her chest hurt. Was this what the feeling known as longing felt like?

Sara had no illusions as to what she was. She was a robot with a sophisticated AI, powered by an artificial heart with a brain that doubled as an onboard computer. She did not laugh, cry, dream or sleep…but sometimes, she did wonder what a dream would be like. Would she simply remember the past experiences of her life before she was sent to Terra by her mother? Or would she dream of electric sheep?

These thoughts, and many others, stared with her for the rest of the evening. She spent dinner with the Harkins family, watching them talk and laugh, even Sureshock had a great time; but she just sat there next to her, silent but observant, like a shadow. It made her feel hollow. Lonely.

Later that night, as Gina and Sureshock lay sleeping, Sara closed her eyes and wondered if electric sheep would appear if she pretended to go to sleep.

XXXXXX

Sara was not fond of the cybertronians. It was a fact that she made quite clear to her peers, but it wasn't just because of the threat they posed to Gina. Sara felt a kinship with these alien robots; they had circuits like her, power lines like her, servos, motors, joint locks, lubricants, processors, mechanical in every way. But such a kinship was false, as they were born, while she was made. Her body would soon rust and wither, but cybertronians, they were near immortal, like stars. Even the loss of their home world failed to truly snuff out their race.

Their bodies were born from the foundation of their planet, metal and circuits and everything born in an embryonic state, maturing and growing into adults and live for millennia before their Sparks burnt out like dying stars. Death came for all forms of life, even those who claim to be deathless.

She wondered what this meant; what constituted as life to a living mechanical life form? What made the cybertronians so different from her? Why were they so special? Was it because they were created by this so-called god? Was it because they had souls? All these questions could only be answered by the mech the Autobots saw as the central figure in their spiritual beliefs-Optimus Prime.

"You want to know what a soul is." Optimus blinked down at the little female robot standing on his desk.

"Yes." Sara said curtly. She let herself in by carving a hole through his door and flying onto his desk. She then bluntly asked the unexpected question before Prime had a chance to inquire why she was vandalizing his quarters. "I have read what the humans define as the soul in various theoretical literature, but I want to know how cybertronians view that which you call a soul."

"Sara that is not an easy question to answer. If you want to know the nature of the soul, then you must ask yourself if it exists in the first place. Then you must ask what constitutes as having a soul inside a living being. There are so many questions that pertain to the soul's nature." Optimus said.

"Then let me ask this-how is it that your people have souls? What makes you so different from robots like me?" She asked. Optimus detected the faint pleading in her tone and sighed.

"You must understand that we cybertronians, for all our advancements in science and technology, know very little about our origins. Our Sparks are indeed similar to souls in other cultures, and they come from our planet's core, Vector Sigma. But aside from that, we do not know anything factual about them that is not strictly religious in nature. And that is another issue entirely."

"So you do not know." Sara frowned.

"Not entirely, I'm sorry." He apologized. "Why are you asking this? Is something wrong?"

Sara debated telling the truth for a minute before deciding that it wouldn't hurt to let him in on her dilemma. "I just…want to learn more about the soul. I want to know if having one makes an organism truly living, like Ms. Gina or you. I've never let it bother me before, but lately, I've been thinking if I am truly alive despite having no spirit. If it was necessary to have emotions, dreams and aspirations. If having a soul will allow me to be…human."

"Sara, you don't need to have a soul to be alive or human. Your curiosity alone is more than a common android or drone."

"Those are simulated feelings programmed into my cyberbrain. I am one of the most advanced creations from my mother, but I am still an android no matter how powerful or advanced I am. This longing within me, my emotions, my curiosity, it's all just programs downloaded into me to mimic those displayed by humans. None of this is real!"

Sara didn't know why she was saying all these things. The words just flowed from her mouth like a ruptured damn. The frustration building up within her finally boiled over with a loud hiss and she just let it go. She didn't know where all this came from, but she couldn't stop the flow of words-and she didn't want to. She needed to at least vent her grievances to someone.

Optimus, to his credit, wasn't surprised by her outburst. He waited patiently for her to finish before speaking. "I guess a supposedly emotionless android like you doesn't consider that tirade of yours an emotional breakdown either?"

Sara fired a laser bolt at his chin and flew out of the room, marching out the hole she made in his door. Rubbing his chin, Optimus sighed and shook his head.

"Prickly."

XXXXXX

Sara's mood grew worse each day, and Gina was the first to notice it. It wasn't surprising since she was the one who spent the most time with the bioroid, aside from Sureshock. The robot girl had become more standoffish than normal and it was starting to worry Gina, who had come to care for Sara as another sister.

"Do you think she's still angry about Penny's comment earlier this week at the museum?" Gina asked her Minicon partner. Sara was down in the workshop, where she resided for the last two hours.

"Maybe, I can't really tell with that girl. Aside from the tiny smile or frown she would throw around, she doesn't really display much emotion." Sureshock said.

Gina groaned and plopped down in her chair. Now that she really thought about it, Gina didn't know much about Sara aside from her combat abilities. She stopped asking Sara about her origins and simply let her be, accepting her presence as another part of the life of a girl genius whose best friends with alien robots. She next to nothing about Sara and that had to change, now. Then Sureshock released another interesting bit of information.

"I heard from Optimus that Sara had come to speak to him yesterday."

"Really? Why'd she do that?" Gina asked. Sara wasn't the most accepting of the Autobots; mainly because of the constant danger they posed just by being near Gina. She was even colder to them than Debbie was on a bad day.

"Optimus didn't say, he respected Sara's privacy. I'm guessing it was about something sensitive if that's the case."

"Good grief." Gina groaned. "Okay, forget about everything else. Let's just focus on helping Sara get out of this funk."

"Any ideas?"

Gina thought hard, rubbing her chin in contemplation. Sureshock grew nervous as that signature Cheshire grin appeared on her lips. "I think I know exactly what she needs."

Sureshock was hesitant to ask, but did so for the sake of her sanity. "Gina…what are you planning?"

"A girl's day out!"

And there goes her sanity! Sureshock made sure she had her emergency contacts on hand when Gina wasn't looking. There was no possible way this wouldn't crash and burn.

XXXXXX

It soon became clear that Gina's version of a girl's day out was not what the other girls expected it to be. Gina's vision of a girl's day out together was to drag them all to the Rocky Mountains to investigate a cave leading to an underground city that was somehow completely intact as far as geographical scans showed. Penny and Razor stumbled upon the place by accident three days ago while scouting the area for energon with Moonracer, and when Gina got the news, she invited every female friend who was free at the moment despite Penny's protests. This included Arcee, Emulator, Moonracer and of course, Sara and Sureshock.

"Civ-Alpha." Arcee read on the engraving near the cave entrance. "Sounds more like the name of a base than a city."

"It could be both for all we know. Ancient humans were known for multi-tasking." Gina said.

Penny gave an annoyed frown and crossed her arms. "Why am I here again?"

"Because this is partially you're fault for riling Sara up and you're going to help me fix it." Gina smirked, fixing the large explorers hat on her head. "And a girl's day out involves all of your girlfriends if they're not too busy."

"This doesn't even constitute as a regular day out, Gina." Moonracer grumbled. "Not even close."

Arcee looked around at the giant archways that bordered the entrance to the city, which was set in a massive cavern that was big enough to house Omega Supreme. To think that something like this was hidden inside a mountain of all places without being discovered for thousands of years. "There's no way something like this could have gone undetected for so long. I'm sure someone with the right equipment could have stumbled upon this place."

"Only if they knew where to look." Penny said. "And who in their right mind would come to the Rockies with a metal detector."

"Come on people, we're losing daylight here!" Gina hollered and grabbed Sara's hand. "Sara, you're with me. We need to see what wonders this place is hiding! I'm so excited!"

"Hey, I found this place first, goldilocks!" Penny yelled at her. She scowled and looked at Razor. "Let's go, Razor, we're going after them."

"You got it, love." Razor transformed and allowed Penny to hop on before racing into the cavern after the others. Arcee shook her head and walked forward.

"Look alive, Moon. We better follow them before they trigger some ancient booby trap or something."

Moonracer grunted and stomped into the city grumbling. "I would be watching the Four Seasons right now in Milwuak, but Gina had to be a nerd!"

XXXXXX

The architecture of Civ-Alpha was surprisingly simple. The city consisted of tall, rectangular buildings of varying sizes that were reminiscent of modern day skyscrapers. These buildings were mostly connected together by wide, sloping bridges and platforms, oddly enough, much of the buildings were molded into the mountain itself, with large doors and entryways tall enough for a cybertronian the size of Bulkhead or Ironhide. Gina had no idea how large the entire city was, but from what she saw from the murals on the walls that spread across the city, Civ-Alpha extended deep underground at least three more levels. The entrances to the levels had yet to be found, but Gina decided to take it slow today.

"What do we have here?" Gina muttered, running her hands along the pictograph on the ground. It showed two figures drawn in a style similar to that of the aboriginal tribes of the Deldaros Islands. One showed a cartoony carving of what looked like some bipedal reptilian creature, and the other showed a tall, lanky barely humanoid blob with what could only be described as a smiley face on its round head. "Sara, have you seen anything like this?"

"No, I haven't Ms. Gina." Sara said. "But judging from how we've yet to find evidence of human habitation, I'm inclined to believe that this city was built by nonhuman hands."

"Very astute observation, Sara. You're pretty good at this." Gina smiled and took a couple of pictures of the pictograph. "Maybe you should take a career in archaeology. It's a lot less hazardous to your health than protecting me."

"But I like protecting you, Ms. Gina." Sara said in a way that caught Gina's attention. Her clear green eyes were narrowed, lips turned down in a frown, looking slightly irritated at Gina brushing off her duties. "I do not do this because it's some obligation or job thrust upon me; I do this because I have grown to care about you. You, Sureshock, Darren, Annie, everyone who has shown me kindness I vowed to protect with all my power, no matter the danger."

Her face fell a bit. "But even my strength was not enough to keep you from…"

"Oh, Sara…" Gina stood up and held Sara's hands. She knew her near death experience had affected Sara almost as much as it did her friends, but the android hadn't shown much emotion during the incident. "I'm sorry if I worried you."

"It was not your fault. You were on the verge of death, and Darren's gamble had thankfully spared your life." Sara took a deep breath. "But…seeing you like that still remain in my brain. I cannot remove seeing you dying from my memory banks, no matter many times I delete it."

"That's trauma, Sara. Something like that won't go away over night. It's like Annie seeing her mother die, or…me killing Circuit Breaker." Gina swallowed hard. Killing Beller hadn't registered to her after the fight in Springfield, until she began having nightmares about Beller's corpse. Even now, nearly a month later, she couldn't help but think back to it. "When dealing with trauma, the only thing you can do is try to heal from it the best you can."

Sara said nothing, but she held onto Gina's hands tighter. "Ms. Gina…what is dying like?

"I…don't have a solid answer to that." Gina softly. "I was still in a coma from all aesthetic, and then I felt pain for a few seconds. Then…nothing. It felt like falling asleep, then waking up from a dream."

She couldn't describe something like that with words. It was very much like a dream, waking up in a sea of stars, floating weightlessly without a body, an anchor. It felt like she was drifting through limbo for an eternity, but she had flatlined for only an hour.

"Death, the fate of all biological creatures. Did it hurt, Ms. Gina?"

"Not for me at least, but there are many people who die painfully. Some go quickly in a heartbeat. And for some it's slow." Gina shrugged. "I can only say that dying is like falling asleep. Only you don't wake up from the dream."

Sara thought on her words. Death was a process that all organic life creatures experienced at the end of their lives. Humans feared it at varying degrees, yet cybertronians thought themselves above such concepts. She was curious about it; what did it feel like to die? Was there an afterlife? Why did people fear death if it was a natural part of life? If she was offlined or destroyed, could that be considered dying? Could an android like her experience the final frontier for all things in the universe? If she did, then would she be considered truly alive?

XXXXXX

Elsewhere in the city, Penny, Razor and Moonracer were exploring the empty streets of the settlement. The odd architecture and lack of prevalent monuments had perplexed Penny and she began to doubt if this city was even Arian at all. Trying to figure this all out would've been easier had she not been forced to contend with Moonracer's constant complaining.

"For god's sake, could you stop whining? You sound like a bratty teenage girl." Penny growled.

"But this is soooo boring! I was about to head over to a concert in Milwouk that I've been waiting forever to see and you and Gina made me miss it!" Moonracer whined.

Penny glared up at the femme and crossed her arms in her infamous "try me" pose. "What were you going to see?"

"Four Seasons."

"Moonracer!"

"What?" Moonracer asked innocently when Penny marched away from her.

"You have no right to complain when you're missing a bloody boy band concert!"

"But they're like, the most famous group in pop history!" Moonracer said. After a quick thought, she added, "Modern pop history."

"Moon, the Frontstreet Girls were hot like that too and look how they went out. The lead singer hopped up on pills, co-singer's selling herself for movie roles and the fourth girl somewhere in Canadia doing heaven knows what." Penny shook her head and went into one of the buildings. "Do yourself a favor and stop listening to that garbage."

"It's no more garbage than that trash you listen to!" Moonracer stomped her foot in outrage. "Nothing like watching Hanna Cyrus cut her hair short and French kiss other female artists on stage!"

"Don't talk smack about my girl, Hannah! She's been through a lot and-" Penny froze mid-sentence and shivered.

"Penny?" Razor inquired.

"A chill just ran up my spine and my hair's starting to get frizzled. We're being watched." She said, confusing the two femmes.

"How do you know that?" Moonracer asked.

"I always get that chill when I feel someone watching me. It's a sixth sense I developed from years of avoiding Gina's sneak attacks during our wedgie wars back in primary school." Penny gave her robotic companions a hard stare. "I know what I'm talking about."

Moonracer scoffed. "Penny, we're standing in the middle of a dusty old ancient city that's been empty for literally millions of years. We're the only ones here and I would've detected any Cons by now. We're safe."

She expected Penny to snap back with a snarky retort, but instead she got fearful looks from Penny and Razor as they looked up at her. "M-Moon…"

"Huh? What's wrong you two? Why are you shaking?"

Penny raised a shaking finger up at her. "B-behind you!"

"Very funny, Penny, but that's not-" Moonracer's voice cut off in a squeak when she turned around to see a round, bulbous head staring right at her. Her scream echoed throughout the cave.

XXXXXX

Around the same time, Gina and Sara were with Sureshock and Arcee still trying to decipher some glyphs along the side of an obelisk. There were more odd looking pictographs showing the strange figures and Gina found herself getting frustrated trying to figure out what it meant.

"I don't know about you, but I can't make heads or tails with this." Arcee said.

"I'm ashamed to admit this, but you may be right." Gina said. "This is no Arian writing, and this city is no Arian settlement. Hell, I don't even think this was made by the Arians."

Sureshock took note of the statue near them. "Maybe you're onto something."

Gina ran her hand along the walls, tracing her fingers along the carvings. She peeked inside a building and gasped when she saw an orb sitting on a pedestal. She entered the chamber, which curiously looked like the inside to a large machine and approached the orb. Gina curiously poked it a few times before reaching out to pick it up.

"Ms. Gina, get away from there!" Sara yelled.

"Huh?" Gina blinked. She felt something poke her hands and turned around to see that the orb she was about to grab had sprouted two white circles for eyes. "Jinkies!"

Sureshock rushed into to grab Gina and pulled her back from the chamber as the shadows shifted around the orb. Arcee ran over to the girls and gaped at the creature that seemed to literally step out of the shadows, becoming three dimensional. A tall being stepped onto the ground and stood before the girls.

"By the Allspark!" Arcee breathed.

The creature was vaguely humanoid; a tall, 13 meter caricature of the human body with long, thin limbs that ended in spindly fingers. Its body was dark blue, almost black, and its head was just a round sphere with white dots for eyes. It moved like water, always in constant motion even when standing still.

"Get behind me!" Arcee said, taking out her blaster. Then she heard a loud scream from outside. "Moon?!"

The shadow rushed at Arcee and she fired her blaster. The plasma bolts hit their target, but they only sank into its body as if swallowed. Arcee cursed and jumped back from its long hands, firing at its legs and head, but unable to do any damage. Sara leapt up and slashed at its legs, but her vibro-blade passed through its legs as well. The shadow glanced down at her before looking at Gina and Sureshock.

"Stay away from her!" Sara yelled as the shadow stalked towards her friends.

The shadow ignored the laser blasts hitting its back and reached out a hand towards Gina. Arcee didn't know what it expected to happen, but it certainly wasn't a little girl firing a chain of energy balls from her eyes. It gave a withered shriek as the distortion halos sprouted on its body and shrank away from her, sporting glowing blue burns along its limbs.

"Don't touch me you living chalk…thing!" Gina said.

"We need to leave!" Sureshock exclaimed and transformed. Gina hopped on and she sped away, with Arcee following in vehicle mode with Sara in her front seat. The shadow stumbled after them, but the pain it felt slowed it down.

"Moon? Moon, what happened?" Arcee called out.

Gina looked around at their surroundings and gulped when she noticed that the once empty place now felt more alive than ever. Not to mention the shadows seemed more prominent than they should be. "Guys, I don't think we're alone!"

Arcee saw the shadows shift around and skidded to a stop, transforming and drawing her energo-swords as more of those…Phantoms appeared from nearly every single corner of the city. They all lumbered about like living shadows, their proportions shifting as they moved, like giants made of liquid. And they were all fixated on the four girls, specifically Arcee and Sureshock. They reached out with lanky hands and Arcee jumped back, slashing at their grasping fingers before reverting to her alt mode.

"Get in!" Gina, Sureshock and Sara hopped into her and she kicked it into high gear. She drove out of the street as fast as she could, with inky black arms stretching after her to grab something. Sara looked back at the phantoms and noted how they met her gaze even as they were trying to grab at them.

"What are those things?" Sureshock asked.

"Most likely the original residents of this city. I take it they don't take kindly to intruders." Gina said.

Sureshock glanced back behind them. "I think we lost them."

"No, they're just cutting us off!" Arcee yelled.

Four phantoms materialized right in front of them and Arcee braked hard. She ejected the girls from her seats before transforming and slashing at their legs. Before her swords could even touch the creature, one of the phantoms snatched up one of her swords and yanked it out of her grip. The sword was absorbed into the inky black darkness of the phantom's body and, to everyone's horror, its hands morphed into long, thin blades reminiscent of Arcee's pilfered sword.

"That creature must take on the characteristics of what it absorbs." Gina observed. "Jinkies, that's pretty cool!"

"That's not cool, Gina. That's bad. Really bad!" Arcee said. She jumped aside to avoid getting impaled by the phantom as it reached for her and took out her guns, firing at it to try to scare it off.

"Ah!" Sureshock screamed as Sara dragged her back and hacked away at the hand of another phantom reaching for them. It tried again, but suddenly it straightened up and groaned. It then started emitting a series of strange sounds from its head.

"Is it speaking?" Gina wondered aloud. "What's it saying?"

The shadow looked at her and its garbled words were uttered faster, as if urgent. The other phantoms stood up as they heard heavy footsteps shaking the ground. Then something large and metal burst through a building and slammed into a phantom, a large three-clawed mechanical hand grabbing the phantom by its beck.

"Is that…a robot?" Arcee said. She had no idea what she was seeing, but she was more concerned with finding her sister and the others.

It was indeed a giant robot, one just a foot taller than the phantoms. Its armor was old, dusty, and slightly worn, and its configuration was less humanoid, more reptilian in the legs, with an upper body more akin to that of a T-Rex in design, in fact. The other phantoms immediately attacked the machine as its left arm began to glow, emitting a powerful gravitational force from three rings on its arm before firing a strong blast into the restrained phantom's chest. Sara flinched as it gave a pained cry, its body dissolving like paper exposed to a flame.

'What is this feeling?' Sara wondered. 'Am I…feeling empathy for the creature?'

"Arcee! Gina!" Moonracer came running down the path with Penny and Razor in her arms. "Oh thank Primus I found you guys!"

"Moonracer, what happened to Razor?" Sureshock asked, looking at the unconscious femme in Moonracer's arms.

"I don't know." Penny said, deeply worried. "We were ambushed by those shadow things and one of them managed to swallow Razor up. Moonracer pulled her free, but she hasn't woken up since."

"And the giant lizard-bot?" Gina asked.

"Something we stumbled upon in one of the chambers near the heart of the level. The minute we stepped up to it, the thing just woke up and started tearing those things apart."

Sara kept watching the violent battle that was going on. With each punch thrown, she grew more uneasy. The giant robot blasted apart another phantom, killing it as the others tried to hack away at its tough armor. Sara knew something was wrong. This wasn't some logical conclusion based on probabilities and statistics. It was a…feeling deep in her gut. But what was wrong here?"

"Arcee, hit that panel!" Penny pointed to the metal plate on the ground near them. Arcee punched it and a hatch opened up next to her. "Jump in!"

Arcee and Moonracer picked up their friends and jumped into the hole. Sara looked back just in time to see the sword hand phantom staring back at her. She frowned and jumped into the hole after her friends.

XXXXXX

The tube took them down into an underground chamber that looked like a research station. It was just large enough to accommodate the two Autobots, and in the center of the station was an old machine that looked like a generator.

"Where are we?" Gina aske.

"Some kind of generator room. I found it earlier after falling through one of those tunnels" Penny said. "They're all over the place and they all connect to this chamber. We should be safe in here until the fighting stops."

"At least those phantoms won't be a problem anymore." Sureshock sighed. "Now let's just hope that robot knows we're on its side."

"I disagree." Sara said, much to the surprise of her friends. "The phantoms…I believe they are not the enemy."

"Are you crazy? Those things tried to suck us up like a black hole!" Moonracer yelled. "Who knows how many people those killers swallowed up before we got here? That robot is doing us a favor."

"Who have those creatures killed?" Sara shot back with an intense glare. "Do you hae evidence that they've killed before? DNA, bones, tissue, clothing, do you have anything to support your claims?"

"Calm down, Sara." Arcee said. "it's true the phantoms haven't killed anyone…yet. But you forgot that they chased us all over the city."

"I have studied them, and something tells me that they are not just mindless killers." Sara said. "They are highly intelligent. I can see it in their eyes."

"Sara, please, just be reasonable." Penny sighed. She was too tired and annoyed to deal with all this drama right now. "The pictographs all over the city depict those creature laying waste to everything on the planet. These things may have even wiped out the Arians!"

"Come on, Sara, you always think logically in these situations." Arcee said, though she only got a cold glare in return.

"I am well aware of my nature, Arcee. I am all too aware of my limited emotional capacity. I am not a real human girl, only a machine made to look like one. I don't have a soul like you, I'm just an android, a machine. My kind was built to serve, not think or feel or have identities. Compare to all of you, I'm little more than a glorified high tech doll." Sara spat. "But this feeling in my…gut, it's not something I can ignore. I cannot allow innocent creatures to pay the price for our mistakes."

Gina stared at her surprised, having never seen her get so emotional before. "Sara…"

Sara's face softened at the blonde. "I am sorry, Ms. Gina. But I have to do this. If I am wrong, then may death be my punishment."

She fired up her boosters and jumped back through the tunnel to where the battle was taking place, ignoring Gina's cries.

"Sara, come back!" Gina yelled, but the android was already gone. "She's going to get herself killed!"

"What was with her? Sara isn't usually that adamant about anything aside from protecting Gina." Sureshock noted.

"Who knows? But we need to get her back before those phantoms kill her." Arcee told them.

"No…"

Everyone turned to Razor, who was finally starting to wake up. Penny ran over to her friend and hugged her. "Razor! Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, just a little out of it." Razor gave her weak grin. "Take more than that to kill me love."

"Tracer, what were you saying no about?" Gina inquired.

"The phantoms, we were wrong about them. They're not killers." She said.

"Oh not this again." Moonracer groaned, but Arcee shushed her.

"When that phantom absorbed us, I heard this voice in my head telling me two things: the generator is the bridge between two realities, the more power it releases, the wider the gap." Razor explained. "And second, the machine that was hidden here was built by their former allies, the Saurians, to kill them. This generator was supposed to act as a gateway to the phantom's world and send the robots in as genocide drones."

Gina's eyes went wide. "And the reason they've been chasing us…"

"Was because they were trying to chase us out of the city. To avoid waking up the robot or turning on the generator to their world."

Everyone gave each other troubled glances as they realized that Sara was completely right. Gina threw her hat to the ground and pulled off her glasses before reopening the tunnel.

"I'm going back for Sara. She doesn't stand a chance against that thing!" She shouted.

"Gina, hold up…" Arcee's warning didn't deter Gina the slightest as the inhuman girl pushed off the ground and leapt into the tunnel faster than either Autobot to grab her.

"That girl really knows how to pick her field trips." Penny grumbled.

"Please be safe, Gina." Sureshock whispered.

XXXXXX

Sara sprinted through the empty streets, searching frantically for the nonhuman combatants. It was quiet, with no sounds of battle anymore, though the damages caused by the fight were very evident as large craters and debris lying everywhere. Was she too late?

'No, I can't be too late to save them. Perhaps they retreated to one of the lower levels.' Sara thought.

There was a loud rumble followed by the building next to her being blown apart and the ancient battlesuit stomping through the rubble. It was covered in scratches and was missing some pieces of its armor, but it was largely undamaged.

"HELLO FRIEND!" The robot said, surprising Sara. She wasn't expecting it to speak. "I AM BEFODAC UNIT 2338. THANK YOU FOR RELEASING ME, FRIEND. NOW COULD YOU KINDLY ASSIST ME IN LOCATING THE BETA GENERATOR? I WOULD BE MOST GRATEFUL."

"For what purpose do you seek this generator?" Sara asked.

"TO OPEN A BRIDGE TO THE DIMENSION THOSE ACCURSED SHADOWS CAME FROM AND ANNIHILATE THOSE CREATUES ONCE AND FOR ALL."

"I can't let you do that." Sara said, flicking her wrists to bring out her vibro-blade and laser blaster. "What you're doing is slaughter."

"IT IS NO DIFFERENT FROM WHAT THEY'VE DONE TO US. WE WERE ON THE VERGE OF A SCIENTIFIC BREAKTHROUGH, BUT THOSE AMONIAN SLAVES DERAILED ALL OF OUR HARD WORK!" Befodac bellowed. "I AM SIMPLY CARRYING OUT MY OBJECTIVE. THIS WORLD WILL NOT BE TRULY SAFE UNTIL THE SHADOWS ARE ELIMINATED."

Sara had enough. She leapt forward, firing laser blasts from her arm blaster. The energy bolts did little damage against the suit's thick armor, and it hardly seemed concerned with her assault on it. She jumped on its leg and began hacking away at its armor with her sword. Though she managed to at least cut into it, she was still doing ineffective damage. Seeking to end this fight, Befodac ignited its boosters and shot through another building, trying to dislodge her. Sara was forced to hold on tight as it smashed through multiple buildings until flying into a courtyard, throwing her off to the ground. Sara quickly took cover as it began shooting compressed gravitonic waves at her that shattered the stone like glass.

"IF YOU WILL NOT HELP ME, THEN YOU ARE MY ENEMY." Befodac declared.

A blast hit the ground in front of Sara and knocked her back into a support pillar. She flipped to the side when it swung its tail and smashed the pillar apart in one swing. Another gravitonic blaster smashed apart a statue she was standing near, showering her in stone and sparks.

'It can't fire correctly unless I'm within range. Being dormant for so long must have weathered away its circuits.' Sara thought. She looked at her only two weapons and scowled. 'Still, it's very powerful and my weapons won't do much damage unless I attack something vital.'

Befodac turned in her direction and shot another blast, which she dodged before it could destroy her hiding place. She jumped from cover to cover, waiting for an opening as it tore apart the entire courtyard trying to get her. She hid behind a plant and ducked to the ground as a powerful blast of concussive force flew over her head and blasted a hole into the wall behind her. Befodac continued to fire at her location for the next five minutes before its cannon finally overheated and forced it to stop.

'Now is my chance!' Sara ran out of cover and charged at the robot. It swung its tail at her and she flipped over it, but the tail changed its direction and slammed into her back, smashing her to the ground. Sara painfully bounced off the ground and landed on her chest, groaning from the strong blow.

Befodac grabbed her with its tail and slammed her into the ground multiple times, each slam doing more damage to her body. It threw her into the air and punched her with one of its claws, smashing her into the stone with bone crushing force. Error warnings flashed across her flickering vision as she suffered severe damage to her frame. She had long since lost the abilities to move and could barely feel her body.

She lied motionless on the ground inside the crater Befodac's fist had made. Befodac stomped over to her broken body and raised its massive foot, stomping on her body and slowly began increasing its pressure on her. Sara could feel her body start to break from its weight and she started being pushed deeper into the ground. More error warnings filled her vision and for the first time in her life, Sara wondered if she was going to die. The thought didn't bother her, but she also wasn't eager to see what death was like right now.

'I don't want to leave her.' Sara thought as her vision started going dark. 'I don't want to leave Ms. Gina.'

"SARA!"

An energy bolt exploded against the side of Befodac, blasting apart its left arm and knocking it off balance, freeing Sara. Gina charged into the courtyard, eyes blazing as her expression was one of pure rage she rarely displayed in battle. It swung its tail at her, but she caught it in her powerful grip and pulled hard. Using her superhuman strength, she tore the tail off at one of its joints, throwing it to the side before running at Befodac.

"WHAT IS THIS POWER? HOW ARE YOU ABLE TO DO THAT?" Befodac demanded, but Gina wasn't in the mood for talking. She released another halo effect that manifested a powerful energy wave that tore into its body, completely crippling its ability to fight.

"Stay away from her!" She roared and blasted off its legs.

Befodac crashed to the ground and Sara jumped onto its shoulders, grabbing its anvil shaped head and started to pull.

"LET ME GO! I AM ONLY DOING MY DUTY TO THE SAURIANS! I AM PROTECTING THIS WORLD FROM THE SHADOWS!"

Gina wasn't listening anymore. She pushed her muscles to the limits as she slowly tore its head loose from its titanium casing. Her arms strained and bulged from the effort and she actually started feeling pain from how much she was pushing her body, but she did not pause for one second. With a final shout, she tore its head off and threw it hard against the wall, nearly shattering it. Befodac's body shuddered before going still, though Gina paid it no mind as she jumped off its torso and ran over to Sara.

"Sara!" Gina knelt beside her. Sara was facing upwards, but she was completely still, eyes wide but unseeing. "Sara, please say something. Don't die on me!"

Sara could hear Gina's voice, though it was growing fainter as her audio systems slowly died out. One by one, her systems shutdown and the last thing she saw was Gina's teary face before she went offline.

XXXXXX

 _Sara stood in her mother's lab watching her work on a stasis pod. Her white cloak and hood were wrinkled and slightly dirty from working so hard in the workshop, having lost some of the luster it once had these past few weeks fighting their enemies. Sara watched her mother's strong, calloused hands as they twisted the bolts into place. She looked outside at the wilderness that surrounded their makeshift base, knowing that many ancient creatures were roaming the jungle. It made her a bit antsy._

" _Mother, what are you doing?" She asked._

" _I'm preparing to send you on the most important mission of your life, Sara." Mother said, grunting as she finished up on the final touches to her creation._

" _A mission?" Sara tilted her head curiously. "What mission?"_

 _Mother looked at Sara, her face slightly wrinkled but not old enough to look any different from her youth, still wearing those same glasses with a crack on the left lens. She sighed and stood up to walk over to young android and placed her hands on her shoulders. "Sara, I'm about to send you to a place far from here, from me. I don't know when we'll meet again, if ever, but this mission is very crucial for the survival of everyone we care about." She said. "I'm going to put you to sleep, and when you wake up, I won't be here for you. Instead, you'll meet three children, one of them being the blonde girl with glasses I told you about. Protect her with your life. Her role in this is greater than either of us have imagined."_

 _Sara nodded, but she was still confused. Her mother saw this and smiled sadly._

" _I'm sorry for springing this on you, Sara, especially with things so crazy right now. But everything that's happened, all the battles and tragedies that brought us here…I understand it now and what must be done. I'm just sorry we have to part ways like this."_

" _Do not worry, mother, I am not afraid." Sara said, but that tightening in her chest meant something else. She wasn't afraid, but… "I am feeling…apprehensive at not seeing you again."_

" _Oh, Sara." Her mother hugged her tightly and Sara returned the hug. She hugged the woman as tightly as she could, finding herself unable to let go._

" _Stay strong, little one. I promise that you will find your own family in the new world. Whatever happens, just know that I will always love you."_

XXXXXX

Sara's optical filters switched back on and she flinched at the bright light shining down on her. She filtered her eyes to see better and noticed that she was lying on a bed inside the Ark's medibay. She couldn't move anything save her head. She was alive, but how?

"I am…alive?" She whispered.

"Yes, Sara," Someone said beside her. "You're alive."

Sara looked to her bedside to see Gina sitting there in different clothes." She was probably out cold for more than one day.

"I'm so happy you're alright." Gina smiled. "You were unconscious for almost two days, and you would wake up even after Wheeljack fixed your body. We didn't know how else to get you to wake up that didn't involve outside methods."

"Ms. Gina," Sara said. "Are you and the others…"

"Everyone's fine, thanks to you. You were right about the battlesuit. It was a killing machine designed to kill those phantoms…or shadows as they call themselves." Gina said. "One of them was the reason I found you so fast."

Gina explained that Razor's brief merging with the shadow had answered some critical questions about Civ-Alpha. The city was built by a race of intelligent reptilians called the Saurians, who were evolved from dinosaurs in the Jurassic Age and were the dominant race on Terra. The Shadows were beings hailing from a parallel dimension that overlapped theirs and aided the saurians in their evolutionary development, helping them achieve technological and scientific wonders. According to the Shadows that were kind enough to transport Gina and the others to the surface, the Saurians had gotten out of control with their dimensional technology development and started a war that ended with the destruction of most of the life on Terra, coincided with the rebellion of their Amonion slaves.

"The technology used in the Age of Wonders was actually reverse-engineered from Saurian and Shadow technology left over from the dinosaur age, and then even we lost control of that following the Great Cataclysm." Gina said and frowned. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't be rambling about work while you're in here."

To Gina's surprise, Sara smiled and shook her head. "No, I enjoy seeing you talk about what you love. I love the way it makes your eyes shine and your expression light up. It's the same when my mother would tell me about her…real family."

"Your mother…as in the woman who created you?"

"Yes. I had a dream about her, a real dream…about the last time we were together." Sara closed her eyes and sighed. "I thought I died. I thought I was in…the afterlife. But I was just merely seeing her face again." Sara looked up at Gina. "You remind me of her. She had that same spark in her eyes when she was passionate about her work, and she always told me to never change who I was at the cost of my identity."

"Do you miss her?"

"All the time," She answered honestly. "But she said that I would find a family in this world, and she was right."

Gina refrained from inquiring about Sara's "mother" and simply smiled.

"I do not know if what I experienced was a near death phenomenon, if I can even constitute as something close to death. It was very different from how you described it, but it cemented how easily you and I could pass." Sara said. "It's proved how precious life is to humans, to cybertronians…and to me. I've made many friends in this age, and if I died, then I would lose all that. I don't want to lose you or Darren or Annie or anyone else. I want to stay by your side forever as your guardian and friend."

She gave the girl a wry smile. "One pro of being a android-we can't die naturally."

Gina wiped the tears from her eyes at Sara's heartfelt words. "I'll be sure to keep you close, Sara. I promise you that."

"Thank you." An uncertain look crossed Sara's face. "And I have a…request for you."

"What is it?"

"At the center of my chest, just under the base of my throat, is my most important component. The source of the artificial psyche that makes me who I am, my emotional engine…the Artificer Heart." Sara said. "It is extremely delicate, and I am forbidden to expose it outside of a sterile environment. I…want you to touch it."

Gina gasped at Sara's request, and the robot girl smiled at her reaction. "If exposed to your skin oils and cells, your genetic information will most likely be burnt into it. Even so…I want you to do this." Sara's expression became determined, sure of her decision. "I want to leave undeniable proof in this body of the understanding that you and I have reached. Not as a memory that can be erase, but as something permanent...something irrevocable."

Sara's lovely green eyes shown with a resolution that Gina had never seen in her before. Knowing that Sara wanted, no, needed this, Gina nodded and held her limp hand.

"Thank you Ms…no," Sara forced her hand to grasp Gina's. "Thank you, Gina."

"You're welcome, Sara."

This moment they shared would be remembered by the two girls, unbroken by time and dead. A bond that will forever be cherished as one between equals, regardless of race. This thought made Sara fuzzy and warm inside, and she realized that she finally found her electric sheep.

* * *

 **There it is, one of my favorite chapters to write in this story. Next chapter we start the Headmaster saga as we reach the final stretch of this revised story**

 **and our path to new content! Thanks for reading and please leave a review.**


	35. Headmasters part 1

Chapter 35-Headmasters part 1

The legendary isle of Tir Na Og was a fabled realm believed to be home to the otherworldly creatures from Europian folklore and legend, mainly those hailing from the land of the ancient Celts. The fae folk they were called, and they once made the forests of Britannia their home. Even in modern times, these legends still captivated people, and some even worshipped these spirits, but the majority of mankind didn't believe in them anymore. Arthruian legends made many references to this place, but scholars simply believed these tales to be allegories for something vaguely religious. No physical proof of its existence could be found, and no one made any serious attempts to find this "mystical" realm.

Aries was one of these people. He was a busy man, being OZ's field commander in the western hemisphere and it was a job that required all his attention. Things were at a critical moment with the Chimera project making strides in development, so the last thing he wanted was to be trudging through a dark, damp forest in the middle of a downpour for no damn reason. Still, Thornment was unusually insistent on him coming along, and had Pieces brow-beat him into following her orders.

"Go on, Aries. Contrary to what you may think, your absence is going to have little impact on the project as a whole." Pisces said mockingly.

'That bastard has balls saying that after that colossal failure of his Inhuman Project.' Aries thought and looked up at Thornment, who was a few feet ahead of him. "Are you going to explain why the hell you dragged me out here, or am I going to have to play charades to get you to speak?"

Thornment stopped and gave Aries a teasing glance. "You'll know it when you see it, general. I thought someone well-versed in the way of war would know the value of patience."

"Only when it suits the mission and OZ as a whole. This field trip you dragged me along for is just a waste of time." He growled. "I'm busy enough without having to deal with your little games."

"Busy? We both know Pisces and Arkeville are the minds behind Chimera. You're just someone meant to stand there and look pretty." Thornment leaned her body to the side to avoid the energy beam Aries shot at her. The tree next to her was incinerated in one shot. "Now, now, all that stress is not good for your health."

"Tell me why we're here!" Aries shouted.

Thornment sighed and shook her head as if dealing with an unruly child. She slowed down so Aries could match her pace. "Tell me, Aries, do you know about a race of creatures called the dolems."

"…Can't say that I have."

The pause he gave before answering caught her attention, but she filed it away for a later date. "They're a powerful race of aliens made of stone. They've spread throughout the galaxy, hiding on primitive worlds and entrenching themselves into local folklore and religion. Terra is just one of many worlds touched by their influence, though their encounter with the cybertronians is an honest surprise." She explained. "I'm sure you've seen the strange phenomena that's been occurring all over the world since-"

"The Winter Solstice. Yes, I've noticed." Aries said.

"My companions have been…keeping a close eye on the dolems, studying their movements, their behavioral patterns and the impact they have on the worlds they influence. The dolem forces on this planet have been dormant for a long time after the loss of their queen, but signs of their involvement in human history are still there." She counted on her fingers as she listed off names. "Excalibur, Gungnir, Mjolnir, the Brahmastra, all weapons of incredible power that were wielded by warriors who have shaped human history. Some of them even made these people gods. And it just so happens that I've found just the place where one such weapon rests."

"I assume that you're looking to harbor one of these weapons with my help?"

"No, Aries, this is for you."

Thornment led Aries into a grove, where there was a small castle that sat in a thick cluster of trees, as if intentionally hidden away from the rest of the world. In this part of the forest, the trees were so thick that sunlight could not make it through, leaving the grove dark and silent.

The castle had seen better days. Once it was probably the secondary home to some noble lord or a knight, but now it was half destroyed and overgrown with plants. The only remaining structure that was just barely standing was the statue of a young man, a knight, holding a broadsword in his hands. Thornment walked up to the statue and tapped her knuckles on it with a chuckle.

"Good to see I was right about its location. The signal was a bit spotty there." She said.

"Where are we?" Aries asked.

"The resting place of a mythical figure from one of Britannia's oldest legends." Thornment said. "This castle is a tomb, home to the bod of the man who killed King Arthur Pendragon."

Aries looked up at her in shock. "Mordred."

"Buried here not long after Arthur's funeral, along with his sword Clarent." Thornment turned her gaze onto Aries. "How would you like to wield Clarent once again?"

A fire appeared in Aries' eyes as he grinned up at her, a rare and terrifying sight for those unlucky enough to be the source of his glee. "I would like that very much."

XXXXXX

"This is troubling." Optimus Prime muttered.

He, along with Prowl, Jazz and Ironhide, were studying a map of Terra in the command room with red dots scattered all over the world, with most of them collected in the western hemisphere. These were recorded energon deposits detected over the past year, and only a small margin had been mined and secured by the various factions. Each dot was color coded: red for Autobot, purple for Decepticon, and orange for OZ. and the number of orange dots was growing.

"We're ran into OZ mining teams on five different missions, and on two of them we've encountered the rogue cybertronian Thornment." Prowl said. "I've had some sky spies investigate some of these locations and apparently OZ is mining large amounts of energon. So far, they're mostly operating outside of osea to avoid running into us, working mainly in parts of Europa, Usea and Anea."

"You think they know we're onto them?" Ironhide asked.

"Knowing those nutjobs, they'll brag to us about it." Jazz said.

"What I'm afraid of is their reason for mining so much energon." Optimus said. "It can't just be for the experiments."

"They're most likely planning some big operation," Ironhide suggested. "Or building some big fancy, weapon. Primus knows those bastards like to go big right out the door."

"Neither of those sound appealing." Jazz grumbled. "Anyone think we should risk sending the Minicons out for recon?"

"Undertone and the Air Defense Team might be up for the job, but with Thornment running around, I wouldn't risk it. She'll probably know they're watching her and try to shoot them down."

"Then we must be on guard. Prowl, Jazz, inform the others that no Autobot shall leave on missions outside of teams of two or three." Optimus said. "OZ is gearing up for a massive strike against their enemies, and I fear they're not taking prisoners.'

XXXXXX

"This is how it goes down. On the open road, maybe just within city limits somewhere, the target is isolated, immobilized and apprehended." Aries said to his team, a joint unit of two seven-man squads composed of men and women Aries personally trained in anti-cybertronian combat. "Of course, out there in the field, it might be very different. Which is why we have to be prepared for any eventuality and any given set of circumstances."

Aries looked at the team before him. Some of them were soldiers Aries trained himself, seasoned soldiers who lived and breathed combat. They were reserved for the really harrowing operations that required experienced troops, and this mission matched their qualifications. It had to be done quickly and quietly without alerting enemy reinforcements.

"Sir, if the target assumes robot form, should we call in the talos units to fight it?" Asked Drake, one of his oldest recruits.

"There will be no mechanized support for this mission. Our goal is to surprise and subdue the target before it has a chance to assume robot form to fight us. I doubt it'll risk transforming in full view of the public in a densely populated area. Our scramblers should disable it, but if it does come down to that," Aries' face darkened. "Leave him to me."

He dismissed them and walked over to the comm center where he had agents monitoring the data sent to them via satellite uplink. The cloaking capabilities of the cybertronians were light years above anything OZ has, but if they wanted to tag and bag a bot, they'd have to know where to find one, and soon.

"Creel, anything?" Aries asked.

"Nah, General Aries. Quiet as the proverbial grace." Agent Creel sighed. Aries patted his shoulder encouragingly.

"Well, stay tuned in. When this happen it'll happen fast." He said. "Dante, mobiles two and three?"

"Standing by."

"Good, we'll get one shot. That's it." Aries stared at the monitors, which showed videos from cameras mounted all over November City. "We don't have a lot of time to dally."

"Thing is, sir, we've not seen so much as an extraterrestrial hubcap for days now." Creed said.

"Trust me. In a situation like this, something's bound to come up." Aries muttered. "Activate the beacon and dispense the energon."

"Yes sir."

Aries crossed his arms and waited for the prey to take the bait. 'Come on out, aliens. I'll show you just how strong we humans can be compared to your battered warriors.'

XXXXXX

Darren didn't like Sunstreaker, he really didn't. This was the first time he could openly say that he disliked an Autobot, and he wasn't alone in that regard. Many of the other bots on the team, Rodimus included, kept some distance from Sunstreaker. The golden-yellow Autobot had a cruel sense of humor-berating Wheeljack, routinely calling Ratchet a fossil, making passing insults about Moonracer's intelligence, and constantly harping about working alongside the Minicons and humans. His hot shot attitude got on everyone's nerves (even Optimus to a small degree), but Darren hated most of all.

Which was why he regretted riding shotgun with Sunstreaker as they drove through the busy streets of November City. They, along with Ironhide and his partners Kevin and Penny, were searching the city for a significant energon source that appeared within the city. Kevin and Penny had already joined up with Ironhide before Darren even knew that Sunstreaker was on the team when he signed up.

This is insulting, I lose a bet and Prowl assigns me to play escort to a fleshy hat sheds his epidermis every millisecond." Sunstreaker complained. Darren sighed and glared at the steering wheel.

"Sunny, could you not? Just…don't. Not today. Can we get through this without bitching?"

"Don't test me human. I'm not in the mood." Sunstreaker warned.

"Or you'll do what?" Darren snapped. He took a deep breath and reigned his anger in. "Look, I don't want to fight, let's find the energon and call it a day, okay?"

Sunstreaker paused before turning his steering wheel in place of a nod. "…Fine. As long as you don't start any slag."

They drove down the street for a while before coming upon a large group of people standing in the middle of the road. "Oh what now?" Sunstreaker groaned.

Darren looked out the window and saw that the crowd was chanting, waving around signs that said things like "Equality for Espers!" and "Registration=Death!" These people were protesting for pro-esper rights. "Looks like this is a rally."

"During the lunch rush?"

"What better way to get some attention?"

Sunstreaker saw that some of the people in the crowd looked a little different from other humans. There was a young woman covered in white fur with feline features, some pink gelatinous blob with a human skeleton floating inside, and a little girl with gills and shark teeth. He never saw any other espers aside from Darren and Kevin, and now he could see how different they were from the regular bunch.

"What are they protesting?"

"Equal rights for espers. As you can see, some people can't easily hide their powers like me. It can lead to a lot of cases of discrimination and racism, and there aren't any concrete laws that protect espers from that." Darren explained. "For all the esper haters out there, there are people who support them too. Mainly family members and close friends of espers seeking to protect them."

Sunstreaker through back to the waning days of the Functionists' hold over Cybertron. He remembered the Decepticon rallies and protests that grew each day. Sunstreaker had almost joined the Cons once to stick it to the senate and Functionists, but Sideswipe stooped him-and he was grateful for that. Seeing the humans in the same position brought back some memories of the not-so good ole' days that he would rather forget.

'Idiots.' He thought scathingly and turned a corner to make a detour.

" _Sunstreaker, this is Ironhide, how are things on your end?"_ Ironhide called in.

"Dull and boring. No sign of Cons in the area, but I have to take the long way around to reach the coordinates."

"Lucky you. We're stuck in traffic behind some obnoxious truck driver," Ironhide grunted. "Penny, stop fiddling with my radio and choose a station!"

"Someone's having fun." Darren smiled.

They drove past a mobile home connected to a black van and, unknown to them, activated the hidden sensors in the truck's headlights. The alert was immediately picked up by Mobile-1.

"Sir, we've got a read on two mechs!" Cressler reported.

Aries grinned and tightened his body armor. "What are our targets?"

"Two Autobots, sir. Designations Ironhide and one unknown. They're harboring three human heat signatures as well; two for Ironhide and one for the unknown mech." He said. "Both are heading towards L2 where Rogue 1 is held up."

"Hmm, Ironhide is a tough cookie to keep down, and it'll take too much manpower to subdue him without talos, too much to spare. Have all units close in on the unknown and herd him in our direction."

"Yes sir, but what about the human with him?"

"Just focus on capturing the Autobot. The human can wait until we've pulled them over."

"Understood."

Aries slipped into the back of the transport and addressed his team. "Okay people, this is where all your training comes to the forefront. The simulations are nothing like actual battle. Gear up and get into your positions!"

"Yes sir!" They chanted and ran off to get their weapons and gear. Aries picked up his new sword and held it in his hands.

"Today is a good day, Clarent," Aries whispered. "Today, we hunt."

XXXXXX

"So what's your brother like?" Darren asked. "Your polar opposite, I'm hoping."

"We're not talking about my brother."

"Why not?"

"Just because. Now shut up." Sunstreaker grumbled.

"Hey, I'm just trying to start a conversation." Darren said. "Driving around the city all day doing nothing is boring."

"Then you should've hung out with Jazz or Arcee. They like screwing around with fleshies. I don't."

Darren groaned. "Would you stop with the macho man attitude? I can tell you don't have a lot of friends back in space, am I right?"

Sunstreaker's car mode visibly shook in anger. "Look you little bas-"

Their potential argument was cut short as, just as they crossed an intersection, a police car slammed into them from the driver's side. Darren was nearly thrown from his seat despite the seatbelt keeping him in place. The car didn't stop until he slammed Sunstreaker into a lamp post on the corner. Sunstreaker grunted as two more cars came in from the front and back, pinning him in place.

Darren rubbed the back of his head where he hit it and looked outside to see a bunch of men in black armor file out of a van and point their rifles at them. "Crap!"

He summoned a TK shield just as they and the "cops" opened fire on them with assault rifles. Sunstreaker saw that their bullets were hitting an invisible barrier that was being maintained by Darren, who was struggling to keep his concentration.

"Darren, who the hell are these guys?!" Sunstreaker demanded.

"No idea, but I don't think they're cops!" Darren said and waved his hand. The ground under the first two cop cars flipped over, sending both vehicles into the air and allowing Sunstreaker some clearance. A missile launcher rose up from Sunstreaker's front hood and swerved to fire a missile at the van, blowing it up and scattering the mysterious soldiers trying to gun them down. He used the commotion to drive forward and speed away as fast as he could.

"Slag," Sunstreaker hissed. "Ironhide, we're under attack by humans! I'm heading towards your position, but-ah!"

Sunstreaker nearly spun over when the ground near his rear wheels blew up. Darren looked back and saw four tiny vehicles no bigger than a motorcycle chasing them. Two had machine guns mounted on the top, while the other two had rocket launchers.

"Are those drones?" He asked.

"Well, they're scrap now!" Sunstreaker spun around and drove in reverse, firing two more rockets. The first one missed, but the other took out one of the drones. The two drones in the rear fired their machine guns and peppered his front with high velocity bullets that bit into his armor like stinging bees, but Sunstreaker continued picking them off one by one. Darren levitated a piece of the street and smashed the last one like a bug, quickly retreating into his seat before he got hit by a sign or something.

"That's right, don't frag with an Autobot!" Sunstreaker laughed. Darren looked forward and screamed.

"Sunny, eyes forward!"

Sunstreaker swerved around just as a black van came skidding around the corner in front of them. The two cars drifted around each other, inches away, and Darren saw the side of the van slide open to reveal a gun turret. The soldier opened fire on Sunstreaker before Darren had enough time to erect a barrier, and the Autobot continued to drive as fast as he could through the crowded street.

These guys are pissing me off!" He growled.

"We're not going to lose them." Darren said. "We need to call for a ground bridge."

"We can't do that in the middle of a street!"

"Sunstreaker, if we don't bridge out, we're done for!" Darren yelled. He cursed as more bullets pelted the window. He was luck Autobots were built tougher than normal cars or Sunstreaker would've been shredded metal by now.

The van that was pursuing them retracted its turret once it was clear they weren't getting past Darren's telekinetic protection. Instead, they opted for a more fast acting solution. The man in the driver's seat leaned out the window and raised a rocket launcher, firing a disk-shaped device at Sunstreaker's trunk. It attached itself to the Autobot and channeled a violent electrical surge throughout his alt mode that sent Sunstreaker for a loop.

"Ahhh!" Sunstreaker screamed as he swerved down the street uncontrollably, struggling not to crash into the sidewalk. He tried calling Ironhide or the Ark, but he couldn't find a signal. "Signal's…jammed…my motor…functions are…shot!"

Darren hung on for dear life as Sunstreaker flickered in and out of consciousness as he had a strong EMP wave drive him out of control. By chance, he looked up and saw someone in the middle of the street walking towards them. "Sunstreaker…up ahead."

Sunstreaker was still coherent enough to notice the man too. He was wearing a black bodysuit but his head was uncovered, revealing the features of a strong man with black hair and…three eyes? Sunstreaker didn't recognize him, but Darren did.

"Aries!" He exclaimed.

"Who?"

Aries smiled and reached back, drawing his sword. Clarent, the kingslayer, was truly a mighty sword; its blade was so dark that it looked like it was carved from stone, rough in appearance, dull grey in color, and three feet in length. It glowed with a dark orange aura that grew in intensity as Aries prepared to attack.

"So he's the asshole behind this!" Sunstreaker growled. "Hang on, kid. This guy's gonna be road kill!"

"No, Sunstreaker, transform! You can't just ram this guy!" Darren pleaded.

"Watch me!"

Aries waited until he could see the green in Darren's eyes before spinning his sword in a dramatic flair before stabbing it into the ground. The blade gave a high pitched whine like a wail, before a bolt of energy surged through the ground and under Sunstreaker's undercarriage. The ground under him exploded and Sunstreaker was sent flying over Aries onto his hood, skidding across the ground and crashing onto the sidewalk.

Aries grinned at the power of Clarent and placed it back in his sheath on his back and walked towards the fallen Autobot. "And they called Clarent a coward's blade."

Aries pulled out his assault rifle and slowly approached Sunstreaker, waiting to see where his human occupant was, if they were still conscious from that. Just as Aries was a foot from the Autobot, a piece of concrete was uprooted and thrown at his face. He ducked under it, but was pushed back by a force blast that sent him skidding back. Growling, Aries looked up and saw a slightly bruised Darren getting to his feet.

"Oh, a fighter." Aries grinned. "Wasn't expecting to see you again, boy. I hear you've been very busy over the past year since our last meeting."

"Go to hell." Darren growled and wrapped his body in a silver aura, forming an armor of telekinetic energy around himself to better enhance his physical abilities.

Aries opened fire on him with his rifle, but Darren drew a manhole cover to him to use as a shield to block the bullets. When he got close enough he threw the cover at Aries, smacking the rifle from his hands and charged at him. Darren attacked Aries with a barrage of punches and kicks that the general easily deflected before the man punched him in the chest. He stumbled back from the punch and Aries grabbed his arm before throwing him into the ground. Three large pieces of concrete burst from the ground at Aries' head, but he kicked those away and fired a concussion beam at Darren.

Darren jumped back, but the explosion knocked him off balance, allowing Aries to throw another punch to his face that sent him crashing into a car. When Aries lunged at him, he rolled away to avoid the powerful kick that dented a car hood before coming at Aries with a punch of his own. Aries tilted his head to the side to allow the punch to fly right over his ear before firing another beam into Darren's chest.

Darren wasn't expecting Aries to fire his beam at such close range and the explosion it caused nearly shattered his armor, blasting him back down the street before he crashed hard on his back. Aries gave him no time to recover as he charged at the boy and leapt up with a kick to the side of his head that almost threw him to the ground again. Aries got three more punches off his face before Darren shot a force blast into his chest that knocked him back.

"You're a skilled esper, boy, but you're hardly the first telekinetic I've faced. I've fought and killed telekines who could part the seas and turn stone into dust with a wave of a hand. You're hardly as much of a challenge as they were." Aries taunted him. Darren broke apart the ground at his feet, but Aries leapt forward and kneed Darren in the chest. "Fighting me was the biggest mistake you could've made, boy. Even an esper is no match for an evolved being such as myself."

"Shut up!" Darren ran forward and thrust a palm up towards Aries face, shooting a drill-shaped blast of psionic energy at him.

Aries somehow dodged the attack, despite being only seconds away from drilling into his skull, and spun around, reaching back to draw Clarent. Darren saw this and jumped back, but he wasn't quick enough as Aries fully drew his sword and slashed the blade down on him in a single movement.

Darren wasn't touched by the blade, but he didn't need to be; the sword's aura had tore right through his telekinetic aura, shredding it apart like paper, and the energy coating the blade slashed him diagonally across his chest, from shoulder to hip and left a bloody gash behind. Pain erupted through Darren's senses, but he didn't have to worry about that for long as Aries grabbed his arm and threw him to the ground, right on top of his shoulder. The boy screamed as his right shoulder was dislocated on impact, but a punch to the face from Aries knocked him out.

"Nice try, boy, but you should have run." Aries said, feeling a little out of breath from that fight. That boy certainly knew how to use his abilities to its fullest. It really got his blood pumping.

Two minutes later, the other team arrived, and the tact unit filed out of the vans, pausing slightly at Aries' glare. "You're late. Get the Autobot into the transport and retreat from the area before the authorities get here."

"Sir, what about the boy?" Drake asked.

"He's coming with us. Just be careful with him." Aries warned. "Espers are a nasty bunch, even in chains."

XXXXXX

"Can't you go any faster, Ironhide?" Kevin yelled.

"Don't go backseat driving, kid! I can't go any faster without alterin' the cops!" Ironhide said.

"Stop yapping and drive!" Penny shouted.

The red Autobot had been almost half way to the coordinates when they got Sunstreaker's distress signal-a garbled message about an ambush. They weren't able to do much thanks to the traffic jam, and they couldn't just call for a ground bridge in the middle of a crowded city. Penny went into overtime in finding short cuts for Ironhide to take when they lose contact with Sunstreaker. After that, all they got was jumbled mess they couldn't even understand. The sudden loss of Sunstreaker and Darren made Kevin and Penny panic.

"We're nearing the intersection now," Ironhide said. "We should be able to get a visual on Darren and Sunstreaker…"

Penny's voice died out as Ironhide pulled to a stop in front of a street roped off by police tape. Police cars and emergency vehicles were gathered all along the street where a high speed chase took place, leaving behind carnage as far as five blocks. But the lone Autobot and children paid that no mind as they focused on the flaming wreck of Sunstreaker's vehicle mode.

Even Ironhide couldn't keep the despair out of his voice. "No…"

XXXXXX

Ironhide wasn't looking forward to reporting the death of two of their own to Optimus, but it was his duty to inform his comrades of the tragic event. The Autobots and children were waiting for him upon arrival to the Ark and he tried to ignore the saddened expressions of Kevin and Penny as he followed Optimus to speak in private with Prowl and Jazz.

"Once again, Ironhide," Optimus said softly. "From the top."

"Prime? I'm…I'm not sure I have much to add to my original report, but if you think it will help…"

"I do."

Ironhide sighed. "I don't know what else to say, Prime. I was stuck in the midday rush when I heard Sunstreaker calling for an immediate assist. Something about an ambush. He was stuck in a high speed chase with some humans pursuing him down the intersection. I tried to reach them, but…I was too late."

Optimus closed his eyes and inhaled sharply. "Any chance at all that he was still functional, or if Darren had survived?"

"None. Whatever they hit them with, it was hardcore. There…wasn't much left of either of them."

Jazz gave a tired sigh. "The remains?"

"In a police compound, Jazz, in November City. The human emergency services arrived at the scene before I could secure the area. Kevin and Penny were with me…I had to back off."

"We get it, big red. No one thinks otherwise." Jazz said. "How are they?"

"Safe, but upset. They're telling the others about what happened. Darren was inside Sunstreaker when he was hit. He must've perished instantly."

The four Autobots were silent at this grim news. Annie and Debbie won't take this with dry eyes, not to mention Gina and High Wire. Two members of their own team were dead and no one could save them in time. This brought another issue to the table.

"You said Sunstreaker was attacked by humans," Prowl said. "I don't know about you three, but I have a pretty good idea who had initiated this attack."

"OZ," Ironhide snarled, his battle scarred face pulling back like a feral cat that's been angered. "They're the only ones who'd have the bearings to go this in a city. Those savages know we can't transform in a populated area! The bastards torched Sunstreaker and Darren! I'll tear them apart!"

"You will do no such thing, Ironhide. A knee-jerk response may be exactly what they want." Optimus said.

"But, Prime-"

"Wheeljack, Jazz and I will secure Sunstreaker's remains. That's our first priority. It's only a matter of time before the authorities realize he's something more than meets the eye. You remain here until further notice." Optimus commanded, staring Ironhide in the eyes. "Is that understood?"

"Yes." Ironhide spat through clenched teeth and left the office without another word. He only made it a few steps down the hall before cursing and punching the wall. "Damn and blast!"

He heard muffled crying coming from the room next to him and looked inside. Debbie and Annie were crying together with their Minicon friends trying to comfort them. Gina also had tears running down her face, but she was struggling to stay strong for the sisters. Arcee was in the corner trying to speak to a silent High Wire, who had yet to say anything.

Ironhide scowled and walked away from the gloomy scene. They were all going to pay, even if he had to fight those monsters himself!

XXXXXX

"There's our glorious hero!" Pisces laughed, throwing an arm around Aries' shoulders as he entered the private lounge reserved for the generals. "Well done, Aries. You've outdone yourself."

"Pah! He didn't do much." Aquarius snorted.

Aries smirked and walked over to the bar to pour himself a drink. "Now, now, Aquarius. Jealousy isn't good for your skin. Be glad that we have a live specimen to work on."

"Indeed, and thanks to you, Aries, Project Chimera can now commence." Pisces nodded. "Now we can get started on working out our plan of attack."

"Hold up, there's one thing you two are forgetting." Aquarius said.

The two men shared a confused look before Aries asked, "Forgetting what?"

"The boy, Aries. That brat that you dragged back home with you like a stray dog." Scorpio said from his spot on the couch.

"What about him? He can rot in a cell for all I care." Aries grumbled. "He'll cause us less trouble that way. That or we kill him."

"That's a bit extreme, Aries. I believe the boy can still be useful to us." Pisces said, earning looks from his fellow Zodiac. "We need someone to test the headmaster program, and he just volunteered for us."

He got varying reactions for that statement, but Pisces didn't care. He wasn't afraid to admit that he was a little biased, given that the boy and his friends had derailed three years' worth of hard work in the Inhuman project.

"I want to try something new. Out past failures on getting the subjects to accept the implants have been very valuable lessons on what I was doing wrong." He said. "If nothing else, then I've never experimented on an esper before."

Scorpio cleared his throat. "Are we forgetting something here? I distinctly recall Ophiuchus ordering us not to touch the children."

"We're not harming the boy. I'm positive my next operation will not have any detrimental effects on him."

"That's not the point." Scorpio growled. They were disobeying Ophiuchus's orders, and that was a big no-no among their kind. Ophiuchus had no tolerance for disobedience, and her punishments were swift and painful. "She said for us to not lay a finger on those children's heads. Do you realize what she'll do to us if she learns-"

"She won't do a thing to us, because none of us in this room is going to breath a word about it!" Aries hissed. "Know that there are casualties in war, and we can just say that he was killed in a little skirmish with the Decepticons when we were capturing the Autobot. It's a solid story, so long as none of you blab about it!"

Aries meant this for everyone, but he was staring right at Scorpio as he said this. They glared at each other for a few minutes, gold on gold, before Scorpio said his piece.

"If that boy dies, and Ophiuchus learns the truth, it will be on your heads." He said calmly, making sure that they got the message. "I'm not standing up for any of you."

"Only it won't come to that. Because the boy is going to play a key part in the elimination of the Autobots and Decepticons." Aries grinned and raised his glass. "We are on the road to victory, comrades. Let's not falter so close to the finish line, yes?"

Scorpio scoffed, but looked back at his dwindling wine. He hoped that karma didn't come for Aries for his backroom actions. Not even a Zodiac was immune to fate's machinations.

XXXXXX

Ironhide felt like a caged animal. He couldn't handle sitting around while still seething with rage at his inability to save his two friends. He wasn't usually too personal in losing soldiers on the field, but knowing that Sunstreaker and Darren could've been saved if he was just a bit faster made the situation hurt more than it did. So after putting another hole in his wall, Ironhide decided to vent his frustrations outside on a few trees.

It was sunset, and the disgustingly sunny day carried into the evening, with the forest now a bright orange from the fading sunlight that leaked through the treetops. Ironhide wasn't one for pretty landscapes and such, that was Jazz's thing, but the scenery was surprisingly calming to him. Losing the need to torch a few trees with his arm cannons, he stood amongst the trees with the sunlight gleaming on his armor, slightly warming him. He remembered Optimus taking some time off to explore the forest in private, mostly to think alone for a while. Ironhide could now see why.

'If Jazz or Skyfire heard my thoughts, they'd give me a lot of slag.' Ironhide thought. 'But…this isn't so bad to enjoy every once in a while.'

He spent a few more minutes walking toward the lake before he heard crying nearby. Ironhide winced as he recognized the voices and walked toward the lake, where Gina and Debbie were sitting. They sat by the still waters, holding each other and softly crying. Ironhide knew this was a private moment and made to leave, but Annie caught sight of him.

"Ironhide?" She called out. He silently curse and cleared his throat.

"Gina, Debbie, uh," Ironhide paused. This was rather difficult. "How…are you feeling?"

"What do you think?" Debbie spat, her shoulders shaking with each sob. "My baby brother's dead!"

Ironhide flinched from her tone. She barely reached past his ankle, and yet her words hurt more than any laser blast or sword wound. "I'm…I'm so sorry. If I was faster, I could've…"

"It's okay, Ironhide. You did your best, but you were taken off guard." Gina said softly, rubbing her red, puffy eyes behind her glasses. "We don't blame you."

"Where's Annie?"

"With Bulkhead and Grindor. She's… coping, I think," Gina sighed. "She thinks Darren isn't dead. I don't know what she's going on about, if she's in denial or what, but that's what she thinks."

Ironhide frowned. Annie had already been through enough as it is, and he wondered if she had finally reached her breaking point. "Gina, Debbie, I promise, I'll get the fragheads who did this. I swear upon-"

"Shut up! Just shut up!" Debbie shouted, spinning around to glare at him. "Just leave us the hell alone! You monsters caused us enough trouble already!"

"Debbie, its not-"

"Don't try to defend them, Gina!" Debbie snarled. "They've been nothing but trouble since we've met them. Everything from my kidnapping, to you dying, to Annie losing an arm…and Darren's…" She heaved another sob. "I've already lost my parents and now I've lost my brother. Are you freaks going to kill Annie too before you're satisfied?"

"None of that was our fault! Don't blame us for what the Cons or OZ did to you, because we've had our fair share of pain as well!" Ironhide yelled.

"I know. High Wire told me all about your god forsaken war. How many planets were destroyed, bullions of people killed. You people won't stop until everything burns!"

"Debbie, that's enough!" Gina yelled, standing over the hysterical young woman.

"NO! I won't lose you too!" Debbie was breaking down again. "I'm not going to lose my only family to those war mongering-"

Gina's slap was quick and sharp. Debbie stumbled back and fell, clutching her red cheek, teary eyes wide in surprise. Ironhide was also shocked, but wisely stayed quiet.

"Stop losing your damn mind! Putting the blame on the Autobots for something out of their power. That kind of talk won't bring Darren back, no matter how much we cry and scream!" Gina sniffled and wiped her eyes. "You can sit there and cry all you want, but I'm going to find those bastards myself and kill all of them!"

"Gina…" Debbie whispered.

"I can't keep going on knowing that my boyfriend's killers are running around. I don't care if I die again and don't come back, they'll all pay!" She continued. "And when each and every one of those freaks is dead, then I'll cry. I'll cry for every one of my friends who've died, human or Autobot!"

Gina's face was soaked with tears as she said all this, and after she recovered, Debbie stood up and took the blond into a tight hug. Ironhide stood over them in silence, sharing their grief and letting it fuel his growing vengeance.

'Don't worry, girls. I'll make sure to give you the revenge you deserve. I swear on my Spark.' He told himself.

XXXXXX

It was the middle of the night in November City, and Wheeljack and Jazz just arrived at the impound lot. With it being so late at night, there weren't any human bystanders to witness the alien auto-theft.

" _No sign of Sunstreaker's remains_." Wheeljack said via their internal comm. " _He must be inside the building."_

" _Security?"_

" _Minimal. The perimeter fence is alarmed and there's CCTV. I can take out both with a localized EMP."_

" _Do it. There's an observation blind spot forty meters along the west perimeter. I'll go in there."_

" _Roger that. I'll see you inside."_

Jazz slowly drove to the rear of the lot and transformed, taking out his blaster and setting it to low power output. He burned through the fence in a few seconds and pushed the ruined metal aside as he entered the lot. " _I'm in."_

" _Me too, but we may have a problem."_ Wheeljack knelt over two bodies, a man and his dog. Both weren't moving. " _I have one guard down, trauma to the head. His dog is dead, shot at close range."_

Jazz frowned and set his blaster to stun. "Which means company."

Inside the building, three agents from Aries' Mars unit were loading Sunstreaker's still transformed body onto a flatbed truck. Agent Kressler was driving the escape vehicle while Kamen and Drake loaded the dead robot onto the dock.

"C'mon people, hustle!" drake whispered. "Is it clear, Kamen?"

"Yup. Not a soul in sight." Kamen nodded. "We're in the clear."

"Good, Goss, Creel, tie that wreck up. Schinidt, get the doors."

The two men grabbed the chains and began pulling the garage door up to give them an escape route, but to their surprise, they found two Autobots standing right in their path, guns pointed at them.

"This a private part or can anyone crash?" Jazz grinned.

"You bozos aren't going anywhere!" Wheeljack growled.

Drake hissed a curse and turned to his men. "Scramblers, now!"

Creel and Goss fired two shells from their launchers, which exploded and revealed two discs that latched onto Jazz and Wheeljack. The scramblers were devices designed with cybertronians in mind, made to subdue a bot by sending strong electrical charges through their neural pathways to restrict movement and paralyze them, akin to the effects of an electrical jolt to the human body. Jazz and Wheeljack were taken by surprise by the power of the little devices and quickly succumbed to its effects.

"Agh!" Jazz groaned, his body stuck in place and paralyzed. "Wh-hhh…"

"It's some k-k-kind of nuh-neural agitator." Wheeljack grunted. "Can't m-m-move!"

"Put 'em down, Drake!" Kressler yelled.

Drake dropped his case and opened it to pull out a rocket launcher, arming it with a kinetic shell. Acting quickly, Wheeljack swerved his shoulder cannon to fire a shell at the scrambler on Jazz's chest, destroying it.

"Nice shootin,' Jacki!" Jazz said. "Let me repay the favor."

"J-Jazz, l-look out…"

Drake fired the rocket and it hit Jazz in the chest. The explosion knocked the weakened Jazz into Wheeljack after crushed the scrambler and both Autobots toppled over. Kressler used his opening to speed past tem in the truck. Drake and his team dropped a couple of smoke bombs to cover their escape and scattered.

"Jazz?" Wheeljack helped his partner up.

"Wow, that stung." Jazz hissed at the nasty burn on his chest. "Even the grunts are annoying as hell."

"Wait," Wheeljack strained his receptors and their eyes widened when they heard a beeping noise. "Move!"

They switched to alt mode and drove out of the lot and onto the street. They were a block away when the entire building exploded. The force of the explosion was enough to knock Jazz and Wheeljack down into a nearby waterway.

"I forgot how much these guys love explosions." Jazz sighed.

"Prime, it's Wheeljack. You have one hostile inbound."

Outside the city, Kressler was taking an empty road away from the impound lot after avoiding the main highway. He heard the shape charges detonate and saw the orange glow in the distance.

"Call me immature, but I do love fireworks!" He laughed. "With any luck, those giant tin cans were caught in the blas-ah!"

He jumped when he saw a giant blue leg in front of him and pushed on the brakes. Too late. The truck crashed into Optimus's leg and nearly caused the vehicle to fold in on itself. Kressler was knocked out on impact with a severe concussion and several lacerations caused by broken glass in his face. For the first time since he awoken on this planet, Optimus could care less if this terrorist died.

He walked around the truck to Sunstreaker's remains just as Jazz and Wheeljack drove down the street to him. "Teletran, send us a bridge. Mission accomplished."

XXXXXX

The team brought Sunstreaker's corpse back to the Ark, where Ratchet looked over the wreckage with Lifeline and Longarm to oversee the cause of death. The two medics said nothing as they performed an in-depth autopsy of their fallen comrade with professional efficiency-from scannings to inspections of the warped armor material as Optimus, Jazz, Prowl and Ironhide looked on with grim expressions. Once they were done almost an hour later, they gave the results to their peers.

"Full diagnosis," Ratchet said, frowning at the wreckage. "This is not Sunstreaker."

Even Prowl couldn't hide his shock at that. "What?"

Lifeline tapped her deactivated laser scalpel against the not-Sunstreaker corpse. "Some make/model, same stylings, someone's gone to great lengths to make it look like Sunstreaker, and done a passable job of it. But in the end…it's just a car."

The Autobots took a moment to process this and Ironhide was the first to voice everyone's concerns. "Then, the whole thing in November City…was staged?!"

"It would seem so," Prowl rubbed his chin. "But…why? Why bother with this elaborate interception and cover-up? OZ doesn't usually act this cloak and dagger with us."

"Because, Prowl, they knew that the only way we'd stop looking for Sunstreaker," Optimus said, eyes narrowed. "Is if we thought he was already dead. There's a chance he's alive, and Darren as well, by extension."

"Primus," Jazz came to a troubling realization. "If that's true, then it means that Sunny and Darren were captured by OZ, and they're at their mercy. Who knows what they're doing to our boys."

"Let's not worry about that, now. We must focus on finding any clues on their whereabouts." Optimus glared down at the misshapen car. "Their survival depends upon it."

XXXXXX

High Wire and Grindor watched Annie and Debbie sitting in front of the TV monitor installed in the Minicons' quarters. The girls barely said a word since they came back and had only been watching TV blankly. It was starting to freak Grindor out.

"I hate seeing them like this, High Wire. I don't know what to say or do to help them." Grindor said. He looked at his team leader. "Well? Aren't you going to say anything?"

"What is there to say? What can you say to two sisters who just lost their brother and a girl who lost her boyfriend all in the same day?" High Wire sighed.

Grindor shook his head. High Wire had been in a deep slump since he got the bad news, and his depression was steadily getting worse. It was starting to effect Sureshock too, who spent her time comforting Gina with Sara. Or that was the plan, except…

"Guys!" Gina came speeding down the hall, leaving indents in the metal floor where her feet were as she sprinted into the room and nearly ran Peppercat over in her haste and startling the sisters. "Debbie, Annie, it's not true!"

"Calm down, Gina, what's not true?" Annie asked.

"The Autobots just learned that the November City interception was some kind of sleight of hand." Gina panted. "There's a chance that Darren and Sunstreaker are alive!"

Annie, Debbie and High Wire looked at her with wide eyes, unable to say anything. Debbie, no longer able to take another surprise like this, fell off her chair and fainted.

XXXXXX

"Kevin? Penny?" Ratchet blinked as he walked into the med bay and found the two kids inspecting the fake Sunstreaker car.

"Oh, hey Ratchet. Don't mind me takin' a look-see, do you?" Penny asked as she poked her head in and around the warped piece of metal that used to be a car.

"I-I'm not sure what exactly is it you're looking for." Ratchet said as he walked over to them. "I've been over the decoy in minute detail with Flashpoint. There's nothing."

"Eh, you'd be surprised. My dad has this collection of vintage cars from the mid-1900s and older. He would let me help him restore those old scrapheaps and taught me a lot about them." Penny said. "To me, vehicles are like archaeological digs…they have history, a lineage-a whole life story just waiting to be unlocked."

She peeled off some of the metal casing from its chassis. "For example, this cassis is built from an ultra-light alloy, probably to ensure maximum decimation. To my knowledge…there are only three domestic manufacturers."

"And they'd have records of clients, customers and so forth." Kevin chimed in. "I'm betting you've got all sorts of super-duper software on this boat. Invasive programs that could dip right in and out of our "primitive" systems."

Penny took the reins. "Now, suppose someone-me, for example-was given unlimited access to your mainframe. There's no telling what they could shake loose."

Ratchet couldn't dispute their solid deductions, though he was a bit reluctant to let anyone but Gina fool around with the Ark's more…offensive cyber programs. "I should take this to Prowl…but let's face it; he'd probably either dismiss it or sit on it. Prime wouldn't go for it without enough proof."

"Then let's run our own covert investigation." Penny smirked. She was loving this. "Time is of the essence. Who knows what OZ is doing to them!"

"Ok, ok, you've convinced me." Ratchet sighed. "You kids are a bad influence on old mechs like me."

Kevin and Penny grinned.

XXXXXX

Sunstreaker was no stranger to pain. Even before the war, when he and Sideswipe would move from city to city doing odd jobs for shanix, swindling money through borderline illegal activities, there were times when he had to get physical. Swords, knives, guns, blasters, rockets, missiles, the list goes on and on the longer Sunstreaker's list of enemies grew. But he could deal with anything those second-rate posers could dish out.

But this…this was a different form of pain. This…was torture.

"AAHHHHHH!"

The golden-yellow Autobot's agonized screams filled the underground chamber as multiple saws and drills slowly tore into his body. He was restrained to a metal slab, arms and legs held in place by titanium metal braces, with nearly two dozen humans sawing and drilling into various points of his body. Energon stained the floor, leaking from the various power lines and conduits ruptured during the dissection. Large cords were connected to his cranial unit, plugged into his exposed bran module and leeching information directly from his mind. And throughout this horrific process…he was conscious.

"Well there's got to be some way to shut it up!" Dr. Henry Arkeville, creator of the ERD's anti-esper weapons and technology yelled. As one of the leading scientists behind the Chimera Project, he was ordered to oversee the dissection of their captured alien by Pisces. Between that, and meeting the quota for the new shipment of Paladin mecha for the ERD, the not good doctor was at his wits end with stress. "The noise is unbearable!"

On the computer, Doctor Sidney Biggles Jones scoffed at the scientist as if he were an angry child. "What do you suggest? Anesthetics?" She sneered. "It's a machine!"

"Ugh," Arkeville rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Why don't we take it offline somehow?"

"And miss out on all this data? I don't think so." Jones replied. "I want all the readings we can get on these things!"

"Jones…" Arkeville growled.

"It's a machine, Henry, a piece of metal. It's not as though it can feel pain like we do." Jones said coldly. "It's an automated response."

"I don't care about that, it's distracting!" Arkeville said.

"Then get yourself some earplugs and get on with it!"

Sunstreaker couldn't hear a thing; he was only blinded by the pain of these…creatures tearing him apart. The scientists never found a way to quiet him down or make him go to sleep, and he screamed all the way through the morbid decapitation.


	36. Headmasters part 2

Chapter 36-Headmasters part 2

Ratchet, Penny, Kevin and Razor sat at a Teletran-1 terminal in the computer hub looking at the results of the Autobot's earlier scans of the faux metal for possible manufacturers in the country. The search didn't take long, but trying to find a possible match that won't lead them astray wasn't easy considering they had no real information to narrow down the search.

"How about this one?" Razor pointed to one of the results.

"Uh0uh. Those are bulk manufacture, for the export market." Penny said. "We need something that deals strictly within the country."

"What about this one?" Kevin asked.

"Ultralite Republica. Yeah, that might be the one." Penny nodded. "Can you sort the orders by size and date? It would have been recent, and chances are they only took what they needed."

"Don't rush me." Ratchet grumbled and typed in another command. Teletran brought up the results and Kevin quickly noticed the top two links.

"There, the first two. A garage in Beaver, Kokomo, and…a custom car outlet in Fort Wayne, Montanna."

"Dibs on the second one!" Razor chirped.

"You know what this means, right?" Penny grinned. She and Razor pumped their fists in the air and yelled, "Road trip!"

"I hope you weren't thinkin' of goin' anywhere without me!"

They looked back to see Ironhide standing there in the darkness, eyes glinting dangerously with his arms crossed.

"Ironhide?" Ratchet said. "What are you…?"

"I'm comin' with you, and you ain't givin' me no arguments about it." Ironhide said. "We're going to find these little glitches and I'm gonna torch 'em…my way."

XXXXXX

He was dreaming, or at least, it felt like he was. Darren couldn't tell what was reality or not, only that his mind felt foggy and he couldn't move his body.

Aside from the lights shining down on his form, which was restrained to some medical cot, he realized there were people standing over him-four men and a woman, all clad in white coats and wearing face masks. There was an IV in his arm…was he in some kind of operation? Were they doing surgery on him?!

Darren tried to access his powers, but nothing happened. Something was blocking his telekinesis-was it the drugs or some special device they planted on him? Honestly, he couldn't think straight enough to actually come up with an answer.

'Wait…Sunstreaker and I were…chased,' Darren thought. 'Then we saw Aries, and…no, these people are with OZ!'

"Prep him for surgery." One of the men said.

The woman took out a sterilized needle and injected something into the IV bag. As soon as the drug went into his blood stream, Darren felt himself feel very drowsy, and his vision started to blur.

'No…Sunstrea…' Darren's thoughts became fuzzy as he was put under, now at the mercy of these terrorists.

XXXXXX

They carried out the "operation" in the middle of the night, which involved Penny and Kevin sneaking out of their homes while their families were asleep. They met up with Ironhide and Ratchet, and they took a ground bridge to their destination-the custom car shop in Fort Wayne. Once they were sure that no one was around, Ironhide did a quick grid scan on the shop and found a multitude of various hidden scanners and infrared beams, things that you definitely wouldn't find in a regular car shop.

"I know the crime rate hereabouts has gone sky-high," Kevin whistled. "But isn't this on the extreme side?"

"Right. That's a lot of security for new wheel trims and some dodgy in-car audio." Penny nodded.

"And it's sophisticated stuff. Maybe a bit too sophisticated." Ironhide grumbled.

"Ironhide?"

"I could be wrong, kid, but there's something in there I think is a Holomatter reader."

"And an energon detector. Definitely not just for human intruders." Penny crossed her arms. "Yup, this has to be the place."

"So…what are we waiting for?" Kevin asked.

"A solid, risk free, strategy, Kevin. If this place is linked to the people who've got Sunstreaker-"

"And Darren!" Penny cut in sharply.

"And Darren, then we move in only with the utmost caution." Ironhide said.

"But-"

"But nothin'. You two don't know all that much about OZ like the others. They're no run of the mill terrorists, they're a cult with all the resources in the world. They're powerful, and they are not afraid to combat any Autobot or Decepticon they come across. Primus knows what they plan to with Darren, but it's nothing good. And they have a habit of covering their tracks…explosively. OZ has always gotten the jump on us time and time again, but this time, we take the initiative."

After a moment, Ratchet drove around to the back of the shop towards the loading area. "There's a rear loading bay back here, Ironhide. I figure it's our best bet." He said. "I can also cryo-freeze the external pressure pads and motion sensors, but if there are Holomatter readers, if we so much as stick a virtual toe inside, we're blown."

"So let us go in!" Kevin said, pointing to himself and Penny.

"Yeah! And before you roll out the "This isn't your fight" speech, it totally is!" Penny growled. "When they took Sunstreaker, they took Darren too. Chances are, that was a mistake. We have to find him before whoever has him decides he's surplus requirements."

Ironhide was quiet for a moment before popping his doors open to let the children out. "I'm gonna regret this. I know it."

XXXXXX

William McCullen was a man of action. A descendant of a long line of warriors forged from battle, he prided himself on his family legacy. A legacy that he swore to uphold in the name of making sure the entire world knew of his clan's strength and prestige. As the CEO of Mars Industries, he did just that-making sure everyone knew who sent those missiles, who made those bombs, who built those talos trudging across the battlefield. He was no sadist, but it was almost euphoric to know that he was the cause of so many deaths across the world; a higher body count than all of his ancestors combined.

But when OZ brought him and his wife, Anastasia, into the fold, he found a new calling-becoming one of the most powerful men in the world. Not just in the combat theatre, but in business, politics and religion. To become a god among men, something thousands of people only dreamed about. And to think that his technology would help usher in that new age. The only problem is that he had to step lightly around the Zodiac. They were really temperamental.

"Aquarius! What a surprise," William greeted the beautiful general as she disembarked the Dragon transport aircraft with false enthusiasm. "If I had known that you were coming over-"

"Save it, Destro, I'm here on business." Aquarius said. William frowned at the unofficial title she had bestowed upon him since they first met and followed the woman into his family castle.

Castle Destro was situated on top of a mountain in Airlann, high above the little peasant villages and towns that lived in its shadow. Despite its considerable age, the castle harbored numerous technological advancements and upgrades hidden in plain sight, not marring the castle's aesthetic, but enhancing it. Aquarius knew this place by heart as she and the castle's master traveled down to the lower levels of the estate, where there was an elevator lift that would take them to the man-made basement level inside the mountain the castle was sitting on.

"If you don't mind me, asking, Aquarius, why are you here?" William asked.

"What else? Last I heard, Pisces was slumming it out in the boonies with you and your stupid kilts." Aquarius said rudely. William knew she was in a very bad mood. "We're running behind schedule because he keeps screwing around with you and I've had it."

"Pisces has been helping us finalize the design of our newest invention that should help OZ's operations in the near future." William said. "It's something that can only be seen to be believed."

"I'll be the judge of that." She replied coldly.

As they went lower, the old, Airlann architecture gave way to natural caves lined with artificial lights and magnetic railings. Once they reached the bottom, they walked through an access tunnel they took them to a large cavern where the magic was held. Mars' unofficial weapons testing chamber where they tested out new gadgets and weapons for OZ's use.

They came into the observation deck that overlooked the testing field, which was retrofitted to harbor a massive power generator built into the cave ceiling, positioned over a circular pad with protective glass along its perimeter. Overseeing the project was William's wife, Baroness Anastasia Romanov, his partner in crime and the more level-headed of the two. Clad in a tight, form fitting black bodysuit, she was a beauty even in combat gear with fine features, long silky black hair and narrow eyes sharp as glass glinting behind thin glasses. Anastasia didn't bother greeting Aquarius (more out of insult than necessity) as she explained their little project.

"The multipoint asynchronus sebether station. We call it MASS." Anastasia explained in a heavily accented voice. "I won't bore you with the math, Aquarius, that's Pisces job. Basically, it's quantum physicals. Heisenberg uncertainty principles. A degree of faith."

"You're building…a teleportation machine?" Aquarius blinked. Anastasia smirked.

"Yes, and it works. Pisces was kind enough to volunteer for us."

William handed Aquarius some protective goggles, and allowed his subordinates to show her what they've spent nearly three years working on in secret. The generator lowered itself over the pad and began generating a large, fragmented dome of energy. A loud humming filled the cave as the machine came to life and within just a few seconds, a humanoid figure materialized in the ethereal storm inside the dome. Aquarius couldn't hide her shock as she saw Pisces, clad in a protective bodysuit, appear before her eyes out of thin air.

"Holy shit." She muttered, but the McCullen couple heard her perfectly.

"Our sentiments exactly when it worked for us." Anastasia said and leaned into the microphone. "How are you feeling, Pisces? Any side effects? Dizziness, nausea, breaking down of the atoms in your body?"

"I'm…fine. I'm perfectly fine!" Pisces laughed. "It worked! William, Anastasia, you wonderful bastards, it actually-oh," His elated expression turned dull as he noticed Aquarius there. "Hello, Aquarius."

"Go to hell." She said back and looked at the machine in a new light. "So, this is another one of your secret projects. And it actually worked."

"It's all thanks to Pisces," Anastasia said. "Thanks to his fine tuning of the relay system, we've been able to send people to Nippon and back within seconds."

"Relay system?"

"A satellite stationed in high orbit." William explained. "Basically, the MASS device works by disassembling physical objects, teleporting them to the relay at the speed of light."

"Then its particles are fired down to the target and reassembled there in a broadcast energy field." Anastasia finished. "When we first started this project, test subjects would have their structural integrity fail at the molecular level. The first men would evaporate before we could call them back. Couldn't keep the signal constant as he never made it home to castle Destro for full re-integration."

"That's when Pisces gave it his magic touch, I presume?" Aquarius asked. Pisces entered the observation deck and pulled off his mask. "

"Got it in one, dear sister. The problem was that there needed to be an interface between the data stored on the satellite and on our teleported subjects. Data was lost during the uploading of the target subject's atomic record and the downloading on either end of the process. There needed to be a more consistent exchange of data throughout the teleportation event. A simplified nanomite processor designed to pick up the slack."

Pisces threw something at her, and she easily caught it. It was a coin. "A coin? That's your secret?"

"That is a targeting coin. It's laden with a significantly smaller version of the nanomite cluster onboard the relay star. The nanomite coins are used to determine the initial location of all the particles in a target. The regular transmission process is carried out and all particles of a target and their estimated velocities are accounted for MASS creates data points in 3D space." Pisces grinned victoriously. "The relay star uses two lasers, one to digitize each of the particles in the target and another to "paint" a mirror of the data points at the desired location."

"And all of it's powered by the planet's mangosphere. Off the grid and self-sustaining." Anastasia finished off.

A normal person without various degrees in science and technology would've been completely lost halfway through that explanation, but Aquarius understood it all and it amazed her. The world's first human-made teleportation system and it was made long before they even thought about the cybertronians. "You actually made a teleportation machine."

"Exactly. And it's all for OZ's use, Aquarius." William smiled. An eager glint shone in her eyes as she thought of all the things that were suddenly made possible by this historical creation.

"We can go anywhere we want and no one could stop us." She whispered. "We could pop right inside the vault of the Museum of Art and History and steal everything without tripping an alarm!"

"Actually, I've been thinking of a more worthy use of this system." Pisces grinned. "Something I think you'll like very much."

It was a treat seeing the usually talkative Aquarius stunned speechless. Thus, Pisces, William and Anastasia thought it would be smart not to mention their added help from the Destruction Minion team…and the fact that the whole thing was based off the orbital jump technology of the cybertronians. She didn't have to know _everything._

XXXXXX

"They're in." Ratchet said. He had a wire frame scan on the shop displayed from his dashboard as he sat parked in front of the loading bay with a hole melted through the gate. "Thankfully, Customs Wheels' conventional security systems are susceptible to our discordancy field."

"Good. Let's just hope that there are no more surprises." Ironhide said.

Inside, Kevin and Penny explored the storage area of the shop, with tall racks full of boxes, nothing out of the ordinary…yet.

"What exactly are we looking for?" Kevin asked.

"Pallets of Ultralite-50. Could be, that consignment of alloy we traced was delivered and shipped onwards. But if not, where did it go?" Penny combed every place she thought would have some kind of sign of a construction factory. Something that hinted at a building factory line.

She flashed her flashlight inside each room, frowning as she saw nothing important aside from common automotive goods. "This looks like a pretty standard retail outlet and ultralite's not something you sell over the counter. So one of two things must've happened…it's here in sheet form, or it was used, maybe to build a Sunstreaker clone!"

Psst, Penny!" Kevin waved her over to a section of the wall behind a supply rack. He up his flashlight to show it better. "See that grove? It goes right up and around, then up again here. I think it may be a door."

"Could be." She made to push the rack aside. "Help me push this thi-oh!"

Penny almost fell over as the rack easily slid over with just a little force. Kevin made an impressed sound. "You're either stronger than you look, Penny…or that thing's built to move." He said.

"Probably on a rail. Hmm," Penny felt along the seam in the wall. "No visible latch or handle. Let's see now…ah! Hold the light steady!"

"What'd you find?"

"A very slight vibration." She pulled a switch blade from her pocket and lightly poked the blade into the crease. "Could be some kind of trembler pad. If I can just…aha!"

The wall split apart to reveal a wide staircase that led down to some secret basement level unseen by the public. "I don't recall seeing this on Ironhide's virtual floorplan."

"Nope. Which means that it's shielded somehow." Penny hummed. "Too sophisticated technology for a simple retail store."

They stood there for a moment, now feeling a little nervous now that they were making some progress. They looked at each other, silently asking if they wanted to go first. Kevin smiled and bowed graciously.

"Ladies first."

Penny scoffed, but couldn't keep herself from smiling. "Well…here we go."

They walked down the staircase and entered a long hallway that led to a large room. Kevin and Penny were greeted with what they were looking for-a car manufacturing plant complete with a production line, scattered materials and even some car chassis.

"This is unreal." Kevin whispered. There were half finished cars built in the same likeliness as Sunstreaker's alt mode, both in yellow and red coloration sitting on powered down conveyor belts. "Make's my aunt's garage look like an off-road chop-shop. I don't even recognize half of the stuff here."

Penny elbowed him. "If you're done salivating, we should get on with the search. You know, something that might lead us to Sunstreaker and Darren."

"Uh, sure, yeah."

Penny went into the manager's booth and started looking through files on the computer. She searched for any relevant clues like names or specific locations, but all she found were catalogues of past buyers and suppliers. "Damn, I'm not finding anything."

"Nothing good in the trash either." Kevin muttered as he dug through the trash bin. At Penny's questioning look, he shrugged. "What? It works in detective novels."

"Let's keep looking. After being almost buried alive, I'm starting to get a little antsy below ground, so let's be…hm?"

Penny pushed aside a few papers and saw a business car on the table. It said "Epsilon Holdings", a company Penny vaguely remembered hearing about. She picked up the card and turned it around, frowning when she saw no phone number or address.

"What kind of business card doesn't have a-" She jumped when all the ventilation shafts slammed closed and the door automatically locked itself. There was a loud hiss as a thick, sweet smelling mist was sprayed into the room.

"Penny, what did you do?" Kevin coughed.

"Nothing, I-ugh." Penny fell over the desk, passing out from the quick acting gas.

"No…" Kevin tried to summon a flame, but couldn't concentrate hard enough. It wasn't long before he, too, passed out and fell to the floor.

Neither child stayed awake long enough to see the timer pop up on the computer screen and begin counting down from ten minutes.

XXXXXX

"Excellent," Pisces grinned as he looked over the medical results. "Just excellent."

"Well?" Aries walked up to him. "How'd the surgery go?"

"Our latest test subject is recovering nicely. There is no sign of the implants being rejected this time." Pisces said. "We've finally done it."

"About damn time." Aquarius sighed, lounging on the couch like a cat. "So when can we outfit the other soldiers with these tech?"

"Not so fast. We still need to do some more tests-"

"We've done enough tests, Pisces!" Aquarius shouted. "I have Sagittarius riding my ass on this new army we promised Ophiuchus by summer, and it's almost spring! We need working models now!"

"We're already going as fast as we dare. We've had too many setbacks to rush things at this point." Pisces said calmly. "I'm dealing with new territory when it comes to cybertronian science, and Thornment isn't exactly forthcoming with the details."

"As long as we get results, I'm willing to listen to our fearless leader bark." Aries said. "We're entering the final stage, brother and sister. Thanks to the information we gleaned from our captured Autobot and Decepticon we can finally make preparations for Operation Divine Comedy."

"Divine Comedy?" Aquarius blinked. "What operation? No one ever told me this!"

"I wanted it to be a surprise. Pisces and I made plans to have our new army assault the headquarters of both the Autobots and Decepticons." Aries said, gold eyes flashing. "We'll wipe out the cybertronians in one fell swoop and end their interference once and for all."

XXXXXX

Outside the custom auto-shop, Ratchet and Ironhide were getting nervous after hearing nothing from Penny and Kevin.

"It's been too long." Ratchet said.

"Yeah. Ten minute intervals, we said. One of them should've signaled us." Ironhide said.

"Of course, they could just be ignoring us." Ratchet replied. "It wouldn't be the first time."

Razor frowned and smacked Ratchet's steering wheel. "Or they could be incapacitated or dead you lunk heads!"

Ratchet and Ironhide were silent and the red Autobot angled himself in front of the store. "I'm going in!"

Ironhide sped forward and smashed through the door and front window. With the force of an angry bull, he plowed through the front display, tore through the shelves and into the wall behind the cash register until he reached the storage room.

"Ratchet, there's some kind of concealed room entrance back here. My sensor probes don't detect a damn thing-a big, black nothing." Ironhide created his Holomatter. "Holomatter-readers be damned, I'm gonna take a look-see!"

"Hurry!" Razor cried out.

"Make haste, Ironhide, local authorities are on their way." Ratchet urged.

Ironhide phased his avatar through the wall and into the basement level. He took a quick look around, noting the Sunstreaker replicas, before scanning for life signals. He found the unconscious Penny and Kevin in the operator's booth, with a timer on the computer screen.

"Frag!"

"Ironhide? What is it?" Ratchet asked.

"It's bad." He said as he saw the timer count down to three minutes.

"It's bad." He said as he saw the timer count down to three minutes.

After a quick rundown of the crisis on their hands, Ratchet parked himself in the rear loading bay with Razor in his cab.

"Ratchet, you ready?"

"Yes. I've finally got a fix on your position."

"Good, now get cutting!"

Razor activated the laser cutters in her arms and slowly carved a hole in the moderately tough concrete. Inside the basement, Ironhide glanced warily at the clock, which was now at 1:59.

"Come on, Razor, hurry." He muttered.

"I probably shouldn't mention this, Ironhide, but we have law enforcement inbound." Ratchet said.

"ETA?"

"You don't want to know, love." Razor grunted.

"Look, Ironhide, you should get yourself to a safe distance."

"Can't. My Holomatter emitter doesn't have the necessary range and I'll need maximum saturation when we break through."

Ratchet hummed his engine nervously. "Okay, but we're cutting it very fine!"

1:49.

Razor channeled as much power to her cutters to increase the laser's power. It took a few more seconds than she would've allowed, but she managed to break through to the basement.

00:35.

"You're through, Razor, cut your power!" Ironhide yelled. When Razor deactivated her lasers, he channeled more power into his avatar, making it grow taller so he could reach the ceiling.

00:25.

One by one, Ironhide handed the children over to Razor through the hole she made and the Minicon carefully placed them into Ratchet's cab.

"Got 'em!"

Ratchet slammed his doors shut and sped away from the building. "We're clear, Ironhide, get yourself out of there!"

00:11.

Ironhide deactivated his avatar and drove back in reverse. The objects left in his wake from his forced entry slowed him down, and an iron hubcap catching in his back wheels stalled him over one of the shelves. Ironhide's curse was very audible this time.

00:04.

Ironhide got himself free and continued driving back. He could hear the police cars outside and knew they were in big trouble.

00:02.

He finally smashed back through the ruined window display and was back outside just as the police cars drove into the parking lot. Ironhide tried to warn them away, but the last two seconds were already up.

00:00.

The entire building exploded in a brilliant burst of flames that engulfed Ironhide, the police cars and the two neighboring shops. The force of the explosion rattled the entire neighborhood and started a panic. As for Ratchet and Razor, all they could do was run with the children in tow.

XXXXXX

"What the hell were you and Ironhide thinking?" Prowl hissed. "Acting without orders, bringing two humans and a Minicon into danger willingly, have you lost your damn mind?"

Ratchet didn't have the heart to look Optimus or Prowl in the face as they spoke in the med bay. Kevin and Penny were resting nearby, unharmed but still sleeping. Gina and Sara were watching over them.

"I hope it was worth it, Ratchet, because now we've lost Ironhide on top of Sunstreaker." Prowl scolded.

"Ratchet, you have better sense than this." Optimus said, taking the chance to speak before Prowl flared up again. "Dealing with OZ alone, much less with the children present, was a foolish move I never thought you would've taken."

"I know, Optimus," Ratchet said. "But Darren and Sunstreaker's lives were in danger. We had a lead and we investigated before they had a chance to cover their tracks. Unfortunately, we didn't learn as much as we thought we would."

Optimus sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "What did you learn at least?"

"Very little, I'm afraid. Penny was holding this car when I looked her over. I don't know what the insignia means, but I'm running it through Teletran now-"

"I know what it means." Gina spoke up. "That's the insignia of Epsilon Holdings, a military contractor, one of the biggest in the country aside from Mars Industries. Annie saw the name of one of OZ's benefactors, Laguna Harvey."

"Do you think that these people might have Darren and Sunstreaker captive?" Prowl asked.

"Maybe. But the company has facilities all over the nation. It's too much ground to cover." Gina said.

"Then we better get started." Optimus said and slammed a fist into his palm. "It's time we strike back in force!"

XXXXXX

Darren sat up in his bed, scowling at his "prison". He woke up in some hospital room with no windows. He had a chain tied to his bed around his wrist, and still couldn't use his powers. Just a few minutes ago, a pretty blond nurse walked in with the coldest gaze a woman of her profession could have, and did a quick check-up on his vitals and motor functions. He let her do her thing, seeing as he was at a serious disadvantage now.

She left without a word, and just a few minutes later, he had another visitor. One he loathed immediately,

"Good morning, Mr. Radcliffe!" Pisces greeted him with that annoyingly coy smirk. "How are you feeling today?"

"Like I want to kill you!" Darren growled. He tried to crush the windpipe of the Zodiac, but all he succeeded in doing was worsening his headache.

"That won't work, you know." Pisces pointed to the high tech collar around Darren's neck. "That collar blocks your esper powers. As of right now, you are no stronger than a child with some martial arts training. A little gift from the island nation of Utopia."

Darren glared bloody murder at him. "Where's Sunstreaker? What did you do to him?"

"Nothing you'd want to hear or see." Pisces said coolly. "Come, we have someone to meet."

The two guards that came in with Pisces pulled Darren out of bed and helped him down the hall after their commander. It wasn't a long walk, and soon Darren found himself inside a large hangar bay that held almost three dozen talos in reserve. But what caught his attention was the Zodiac general Aries and the 17 foot tall femme standing next to him."

"You." Darren hissed at Aries.

"Hello to you too, boy." Aries said coldly.

"Save the alpha male contest for later, boys." Thornment said. "What are the results?"

"It's obvious, Thornment." Pisces smiled. "The boy has accepted the upgrades without a problem."

"No sign of any defects, health issues or deformities. And the operation was done only a day ago." Aries hummed. "The new healing accelerants have exceeded expectations."

"You've outdone yourself, Pisces." Thornment nodded. "Begin mass production."

"As you wish."

What the hell is going on here?" Darren asked. "What do you want with me?"

Aries drew Clarent and held the sword to Darren's neck. He could feel the heat rising from the blade, making him sweat, but Darren struggled to show no fear.

"You? Nothing. You've served our purpose. You're just a tag along." Aries said.

"Though, I suppose with the right conditioning," Pisces pointed to the wall behind Darren. "You could still play a part in OZ's new world order."

Darren looked behind him and gasped. Lined up against the wall were a dozen headless Sunstreaker clones, all built to the image of the Autobot himself with little deviations from the original design, sans head. They were building an army of clones!

'No,' Darren thought, horrified. 'What have they done to him?!'


	37. Headmasters part 3

Chapter 37-Headmasters part 3

It was early morning in Valparaiso, Indiana as Rodimus and Wheeljack drove down the highway leading into the city. The two Autobots had just been on recon duty when Ratchet called them up for a much-needed update on their missing comrade-Ironhide.

"Let me get this straight, Ratchet," Rodimus said. "Someone's going to pulverize Ironhide?"

" _Apparently so, Rodimus. It's taken three weeks, but I finally got a solid G.P. lock in an automotive scrap yard in Warsaw."_ Ratchet said. _"According to their onsite log, he's in a clutch of wrecks scheduled for the pneumatic presses when they operated at 8:00 AM."_

"Huh. Well then, given that it's 5:17, we're hardly, er, pressed for time." Rodimus made a noise of clearing his throat at the bad pun. "Still, any excuse to go fast! Come on, Jackie, let's burn!"

Rodimus and Wheeljack increased their speed and made to drive someplace private for Ratchet to bridge them to Warsaw. They were unaware of the Sedan trailing after them, tracking their travel route.

XXXXXX

"Come on, Bulkhead! Keep the pace up!"

"Ugh," Bulkhead groaned as he lay on his side, lifting his leg up in tune with Annie's counting, matching her movements in their usual exercise routine. "This is embarrassing."

"If you want to walk, Bulkhead, you'll follow my lead." Annie said. "Doctor's orders."

Off to the side, Grindor and Jolt were watching the odd spectacle like it's a movie, sharing two cans of Kremzeek. "This is too good." He smirked.

"I know, right?" Jolt laughed.

"Shut it." Bulkhead grunted, struggling to lift his leg before bringing it down with a sigh. "This is too much. Can't I just drive around? I can do that perfectly."

"And risk your legs atrophying? Not a chance, Bulkhead." Ratchet said. "You need to regain strength in your body after that neurotoxin tore through your body's systems. Daily exercise is key, and Annie is the perfect instructor for you."

"Be glad Jazz isn't doing this. He'll make you do balancing acts on your fingertips." Annie said. "And stop complaining, Bulk, don't you do twice as much lifting as anyone in this ship?"

"Yeah, Bulkhead, this shouldn't be too hard for a former Wrecker!" Jolt called out.

"I'm plucking you after I'm done with this." Bulkhead threatened.

Grindor tapped Jolt on the shoulder. "Did you record this?"

"I've got a sky spy recording this as we speak." Jolt whispered.

"Sweet." Grindor gave Jolt a fist bump.

Annie helped Bulkhead complete a few more sets before ending their session, much to the giant mech's relief. As she went to get some water, she heard shouting outside in the hallway and looked out to see the commotion.

"Don't walk away from me!"

It was Debbie, and she was tailing Prowl down the hall like a feral cat ready to tear apart her prey. The elder Radcliffe was giving Prowl an earful and the Autobot looked like he was at his wits end, close to tearing his audials out.

"Debbie, please, would you stop being so hysterical?" Prowl asked miserably. "You don't have to shout."

"Apparently I do if I need to get anyone's attention around here. You may not give a damn about Darren, but I do!" Debbie yelled. "Look at me damn it!"

Prowl stopped in front of the command center and glared down at Debbie with a rare show of annoyance, and Debbie glared at him without hesitation.

"It's been three weeks since they took Darren and Sunstreaker, and the only ones who seem to actually give a damn are Arcee, Moonracer, Bumblebee, and the Minicons. Even Gina and Sara are doing more than you guys!"

"We've hit a dead end, Debbie. Right now, all we have to go on is a single company with facilities all over this nation and Europa." Prowl told her. "Too much ground to cover and it's too dangerous to start attacking locations randomly and hope we'll hit gold."

"So instead, you people decide to do nothing and sit on your asses."

"You've said the some of the others are making an effort to look for your brother, see if they've made any progress." He turned his back on her and continued walking down the hall. "Right now, we've got to deal with saving Ironhide and contend with the Decepticons still hoarding ore-13. If you'll excuse me."

Debbie watched Prowl walk away with angry eyes and stomped her foot. "I HOPE ALL OF YOU AUTOBOTS GO TO HELL!"

"Debbie," Annie walked up to her, grabbing her elbow to pull her to the side. "Calm down. You're causing a scene."

"So what? I hope everyone hears me! They need to know that I'm not going to shut up until someone does something around here!" Debbie screamed. She took a deep breath and rubbed her forehead to soothe her aching head.

"Raging about it won't help anyone, and your face is so red you could match Optimus in coloration. You're going to pass out from stress." Annie gave her sister a one armed hug. "Please, calm down, for my sake at least before you put yourself in the hospital."

Debbie took a moment to calm her fast heating heart before pulling Annie close, resting her head in the smaller girl's hair. "How are you so calm? Usually you're the one who'd be kicking and screaming in situations like this."

"Because I know Darren's still alive. He's my twin, remember? We know when the other's in pain." Annie said, resting her head against Debbie's chest. "He's still alive and I have faith that he'll find a way to come back to us."

"Thanks, Annie."

In the command center, another tense conversation was going on. Optimus was sitting in his chair listening to a very concerned Sideswipe try to convince him to get a transfer to Terra.

" _Look, Prime, whatever reason there was for us to be here, it's gone. It went with Thunderwing."_ Sideswipe said. _"Instead of babysitting an empty base, we could be there on Terra backing you up. See, I've been monitoring your situation so I know that right now, you could do with reinforcements."_

"Sideswipe," Optimus said calmly. "Put Hound back on."

Sideswipe frowned and backed away to allow an annoyed Hound to speak. _"Sorry about that, Prime. I-"_

"Hound, I'll have Elita-1 take over from you there. She can see to the decommissioning of Bludgeon's base. You and a squad of your choosing will prepare for onward transmission to Terra."

Sideswipe's look of shock almost made Optimus smile if the situation weren't so dire. In truth, he didn't require anymore reinforcements on Terra at the moment, and he knew Sideswipe only wanted to come because he knew Sunstreaker was in danger. Cybertronian siblings had a kind of sixth sense to each other's pain, no matter the distance. It happened with Arcee and Moonracer, and Sideswipe and Sunstreaker were no different.

Optimus agreed to have Hound's team transferred because Sideswipe might actually instinctively know where Sunstreaker was being held by OZ, and by extension, Darren. It was a risky plan with a lot of room for error, but it was better than sitting around waiting for something to turn up.

He turned in his seat and saw the Radcliffe sisters talking in the hall. Optimus prayed to the Matrix that Darren was safe, because he didn't believe Debbie and Annie could handle another personal tragedy.

XXXXXX

" _It'd be great, Hot Rod. You, me, together again!" Dealer said. "Come on!"_

 _Rodimus expression had an oddly serious look on his usually carefree face as he spoke with a good friend of his from his old unit. The flame patterned mech once had a team of his own on a mission to the planet Ki-Aleta, which held an ancient and powerful relic called the Magnificence. Long story short, halfway into the mission, equipment failure led to Rodimus's team being slaughtered and Dealer being taken prisoner by Decepticons. Rodimus had worked tirelessly to save his friend and led a solo operation to free Deale, putting at least some of his demons to rest._

" _Sure, Dealer, sure, but…things are really tense here and I doubt Prime or Prowl would appreciate me taking in unneeded stragglers." Rodimus said. "Deployment wise, my hands are tied."_

" _Come on! You're telling me you couldn't whisper in the right audio receptor, grease a few sticky wheels? You must be losing your touch." Dealer quipped. "Get me to Terra, Hot Rod, the sooner, the better. You and I, well, we've got history!"_

" _Um, yeah." Rodimus said, a little distracted. "Let me see what I can do. Right now, I gotta go places."_

That conversation was on Rodimus's mind since this morning, and it made him uncharacteristically quiet. He really didn't need to deal with this right now, not with so many other things going on at once.

"Hot Rod, you feeling all right?" Wheeljack asked. "You're kind of quiet."

"I'm fine, Wheeljack, just focusing on the mission. And don't call me Hot Rod!" Rodimus said. "Now pick up the speed-we got three hours to haul Ironhide's fender out of the hydraulic presses!"

"Which is plenty of time. So let's keep it a mile closer to the speed limit, eh?" Wheeljack said as he pulled up to Rodimus. "And Rodimus, initialize your holo-driver."

"Yeah, yeah." Rodimus generated his faux human in his empty driving seat. "As for as the speed limit, it's not like there's anyone on the road at this hour-whoa!"

Rodimus's hologram jumped a bit as two yellow blurs zipped past him and Wheeljack. "What the hell? Wheeljack, did you-"

"Yeah, I see them too." Wheeljack said. "And I wish I hadn't."

The two Autobots realized they were surrounded on all sides by cars that looked exactly like Sunstreaker's alt mode, easily matching their speed on the highway.

In a mobile command vehicle, field agent Drake of the Mars unit was monitoring the highway chase with agent John.

"Targets are in the grid, Drake." John reported, using aerial drones to monitor the situation from the air. "We have a 30-mile window before they hit Plymouth."

Drake nodded. "The Zodiac are watching, John, give 'em a good show!"

The Sunstreaker clones pulled back and opened their hoods, revealing six chambered missile launchers. "Rodimus!" Wheeljack exclaimed.

"Looks like the resemblance to Sunstreaker is more than skin deep!" Rodimus remarked.

"Break!"

Just as the four cars fired their missiles, Rodimus and Wheeljack separated, allowing the dangerous projectiles to explode between them. Two of the clones sped up and slammed into Wheeljack, trying to knock him off the road.

"We need to put some distance between them and us!" He grunted, trying to dislodge his assailants. He yelped when a missile hit dangerously close to his fender.

"Why?" Rodimus ignited his exhaust pipes, increasing is speed. "I vote we stick around and show these pale imitations how to fight fire with fire!"

Wheeljack broke out of the deadlock by slamming on his brakes just as another clone tried to ram him, slamming into the other clone instead. The engineer caught up to Rodimus. "Because what's to say one of them isn't the real Sunstreaker?"

"Then he better pray I don't leave him in stasis lock."

XXXXXX

"Hmm," Pisces hummed and waved his hand in front of Darren's blank face. The boy didn't move or even blink as he sat in his chair, staring forward with dead eyes. "Is he awake?"

"Yes…and no. his conscious mind has been suppressed," Doctor Sidney Jones said, checking Darren's medical charts. "But all his motor-functions and reactions are intact, leaving us free to impose our own directives. Essentially, Darren Radcliffe…is OZ property."

"Good, good." Pisces smiled. "You've really helped us this time boy. Your body's accepted both the implants and the exo-carapice perfectly. Such a shame you and your sisters garnered Aries' ire. You certainly won't be needing this anymore."

Pisces inserted a key into Darren's inhibitor collar and clipped it open to take it off. He patted the boy on the head and walked to the door with the doctor.

"Now Sidney, show me how the Barricade warriors are doing."

"Of course, Pisces…"

They left the room to move onto their other projects, and they were so engaged in their work that they failed to see Darren's green eyes following their movements.

XXXXXX

Highway 30 became a highway to hell for Rodimus and Wheeljack as they dodged the volley of rockets fired at them by the Sunstreaker clones. The unknown and unnamed attackers were only a few paces behind and they were increasingly hard to divert or escape from.

"So much for outrunning them." Rodimus said.

"Yeah, they've got pace," Wheeljack said, swerving around a rocket that almost blew out his front tire.

"And range! Ow!" Rodimus hissed as a rocket crashed in front of him. "Any other bright ideas, Wheeljack? Cause, you know, much as I tolerate Sunstreaker, I'm starting not to care!"

"If we can't outmaneuver them, then we outsmart them!" Wheeljack made a hard left, drifting in front of an oncoming eighteen-wheeler truck. A clone tried to follow, but the truck hit it dead center and sent the vehicle crashing into the highway's protective railing, now a crushed and destroyed wreck.

"Good to see you're not a straight shooter, Jackie." Rodimus swerved onto a sharply curving road and the clone chasing him tried to do the same move. But it wasn't as adept at high speed control like Rodimus was, and this it crash through the railing and fell over the edge to its destruction. "That's two out of the equation."

They drove to the end of the road, making a detour onto a dirt path that led to the back end of an oil refinery. Seeing they lose their pursuers, the Autobots parked themselves to take a breather.

"Can we rest now?" Wheeljack groaned. It wasn't even ten yet, and things were already going south. He groaned even louder when he saw the remaining three clones drive down the path and slowly edged toward the Autobots, rocket launchers ready to fire on command.

"Slag, it's like they know how we think," Rodimus growled. "Anticipate every move we make."

"But…they're just automated drones, right?" Wheeljack asked and looked at his partner. "Right?"

"I don't know, but I know I'm sick of this game of cat and mouse. Let's see what they do when they see this!" Rodimus and Wheeljack converted to their bipedal modes and brought out their weapons; Rodimus extended his arm blasters, and Wheeljack took out his pulse cannon. They were ready for battle, but were hoping these "drones" were just simple clones of Sunstreaker's alt mode.

Too bad the universe hated them too much to cater to their hopes.

XXXXXX

'What did they do to me?' Darren thought as he stumbled through the halls of the OZ base. He felt dizzy, and his mind was hazy and sluggish. 'What am I now?'

Whatever they had done to him, it was more than just fixing some weird exo-armor to his body. He felt different inside too. Over the past three weeks, the scientists here had been trying to brainwash him into some loyal soldier on Aries' orders. Three weeks of pumping drugs into his body and using hypnotic suggestions to weaken his defenses. The only reason he had a clear head was because he repeated songs from his favorite childhood animated movies and inflicted some form of pain on himself to fight off the effects.

Thinking about his family and friends helped too, along with a personal mantra of Gina's science equations.

Darren jumped when he heard cheers coming from one of the rooms. Quietly, he sneaked up to the door and peeked inside. A group of scientist were deeply engaged in watching their prototype warriors battle two Autobots.

"Rodimus and Wheeljack?" Darren whispered. A shudder ran up his spine when he heard a pained, weak voice.

"Dn-Darreennn…"

He spun around, holding back his startled scream, but the horrific sight he came upon was enough to steal his voice.

It was Sunstreaker's head. And only his head, with a few cables connecting from his neck into the glowing spherical laser core. It sat on a pedestal, hooked up to dozens of wires and cables, his expression fixed into one of pure agony. The armor and optic lens around his right eye was stripped away, revealing his bright blue optical sensory organ underneath. And that one eye was staring straight at him.

Oh god," Darren gasped. "Sunstreaker?"

"Puhlease," Sunstreaker's garbled voice coughed through his battered vocoder, though his lips did not move. "Kill me!"

XXXXXX

Rodimus and Wheeljack were both in similar states of shock as one of the clone cars began to transform on its own. Unlike the natural, fluid transformations of normal cybertronians, this conversion was rigid and mechanical, lacing the quick fluidity of a natural transformation. Within seconds, a 15 foot replica of Sunstreaker stood in front of them, similar to the actual Autobot in almost every way, but its head had a cold, dead expression with red eyes.

Another surprise came when the clone reached up and plucked off its head!

"What the hell?!" Rodimus exclaimed.

The headless clone placed the head on the ground, and it too transformed into a smaller humanoid form-a man clad in some strange exo-armor that was once the larger mech's head.

"What are you?" Wheeljack whispered in awe and horror.

"Headmasters," The man smirked. "In evolutionary terms, the next step. Which makes you two surplus requirements!"

XXXXXX

Darren felt sick. He never saw a cybertronian, friend or foe, dismembered in such a manner this gruesome. Even Skyquake's death was quick and clean, merciful some would say considering the circumstances. Blinking back tears and keeping himself from retching, Darren tried to stay focused.

"S-Sunstreaker, how are you still alive?" Darren asked. Sunstreaker tried to speak, but all that came out was a digital drawl. "Sunny, stay with me here!"

"Suh-sorry, Darrennn. Difficult to-to…focus." Sunstreaker said in his broken speech. "They're…in my head. DD."

Why? What have they done to you?" He asked. "To me?"

"Suh-some kind of new t-tech. Human-mech hy-hy-"

"Hybrid?"

"Yuh. Har-hardwired into my neural p-processor. Call themselves…headmasters."

"Head-is that what I am? A headmaster?" Darren choked back a sob. "Gaia help me. Do I…change?"

"Yuh." Sunstreaker answered. "Into muh-my head. They're b-building ann…army. Using me as the…hub. Squeezing my mind."

"I heard Aries say Barricade's name. Is he…?"

"Theyyy-have him, tooooo. Making army of him, but ha-hahaving difficulty. Trouble wo-wo-working with dead brainnnn."

Darren quickly ducked under the window when one of the scientists glanced his way. He cursed and scooted out of sight into the corner. Okay, right." He breathed. "So what do we do?"

"Kuh-kill me." He pleaded. Darren turned to him with horrified eyes.

"No," Darren said firmly. "I won't accept that. There must be another option. Some way to fight back."

"Pwlease. I…just…want. This. To. Stop." Sunstreaker begged, a tear of energon leaking from his single operating eye. "They're all in here, uuusing me…to hunt, to hurt other Autobots! And this…is just the beginning!"

"I'm not killing you, Sunny. Not when I can save you. We're both going back to our families after this. I promise you." Darren looked at his armor, which looked like a demonic version of Sunstreaker's face. "The only way we both get out of here is together. Sunstreaker, they tried to make me into a weapon, and they already have dozens of clone bodies down here, I've seen them."

Darren took a deep breath and looked up at the dismembered Autobot. "Teach me…teach me how to be a headmaster."

XXXXXX

Headmasters were a special breed of cybertronian. They were born as mechanoids able to detach their heads, which operate as separate beings and are the true heart of their larger bodies, called transectors. They were an oddity before the war, and their numbers declined following the outbreak of hostilities.

What OZ had done with Sunstreaker was a perverted version of headmaster biology. It appalled Rodimus and Wheeljack, who had friends who were true headmasters like Brainstorm and Chromedome. But Rodimus hid his disgust with witty taunts.

"Headmasters? Now I've seen everything." He smirked. "I mean, I can see how you'd want to cover up all that fleshy vulnerability, but really! It'd be laughable if it weren't so tragic."

Wheeljack's back armor panel slid apart and one if his shoulder cannons extended from its compartment. He looked to Rodimus, who signaled him to wait.

"In a way, it's ironic you should have picked Sunstreaker to model yourself on. Because, well, this is the ultimate vanity!" Rodimus continued. "Plain fact is, all the cosmetic surgery in the world won't make you him."

"You're wrong…Rodimus of Nyon!" Agent Kloss grinned. "Actually, we're everything he was. More in fact! And thanks to him, we know all there is to know about both of you!"

"Well, see, I'm not sure. My friend here, Wheeljack he's something of a tinkerer. Always inventing some new bit of weaponry or gadget." Rodimus smirked. "And Sunstreaker, well, let's just say he's somewhat lax when it comes to reading the memos. I'm willing to bet he's never heard of a gyro-inhibitor shell."

Rodimus snapped his fingers and Wheeljack fired the shell from his cannon. It exploded over Kloss and his transector, raining down tiny sparks upon him. These sparks were in fact tiny EMP nanobots that disrupted electrical objects on contact. To Kloss, when his transector's neural signals were disrupted, the psychic link shared between the two caused a strong disruption in his equilibrium. When headmaster and transector fell over, that's when the Autobots made their move.

"Move it, Jackie!" Rodimus reverted to his car form with Wheeljack and sped past the other two headmasters.

"We're running?"

"For now. We have a deadline, remember?"

"Right, Ironhide." Wheeljack sighed. "We've got 60 minutes."

"Then let's roll!"

XXXXXX

These headmasters," Darren said. "They look like you and think like you."

"Yuh."

"And that's because at this stage of the process, they're hardwired into your head."

"Yuh."

"So, Sunstreaker," Darren flipped a lever to reveal a pod inside. "Room for one more?"

"Hehn. Why not?" Sunstreaker replied. "Whuhddabout youuu? Puh-point of nh-no return…"

Darren looked at his body. "Yeah, I know. But we have no choice. OZ must be stopped."

He walked over to the pod and looked it over nervously. "What do I do now?"

"Juhst…get in. Puh-process is auto-muh-muh-mated from hrh on in…"

"Okay." Darren got into the pod and waited anxiously. "A-anything else I should know?"

"Yuh. Iht's painful."

"Oh great!" Darren gulped as clamps fastened around his waist and a helmet was fitted onto his head. "No he tells me-AAAAAHHHHH!"

Darren's complaints melted into a scream as he felt his mind mesh with Sunstreaker through a painful procedure that felt like his entire brain was being electrocuted. Thoughts were exchanged, minds melded, memories were shared, and from it came a new breed of human.

XXXXXX

It was 7:53 when the pair of Autobots made it to the car lot. They spent tie than what was needed losing the headmasters, and even then they couldn't be sure that they were free. It was two against three.

"Did we lose them?" Wheeljack asked.

"Can't afford to assume so." Rodimus said, using the tasers in his headlights to break open the gate. "But neither can we afford to do more than we've done to shake them off. Ironhide's scheduled for the presses first thing, so we need to get him out of here, fast!"

The two Autobots drove into the lot, where Wheeljack encountered another problem. "I can't seem to get a GPS echo. Didn't Ratchet say he had it locked in?"

"Yeah, Wheeljack, he did. Funny thing is, we haven't heard a thing from him this entire time, let alone the GPS locator pulse."

"Oh boy." Wheeljack's scanners surveyed the huge area they had to deal with. Rows upon rows of scrapped cars in neat little piles. "Look lively, Hot Rod, we've got a lot of ground to cover."

South of the lot, Kloss and his team were still searching for their prey, who had surprisingly managed to elude them within the city.

"Well?" He asked.

"Command central has them making this turn on the local surveillance. Then…gone."

"Spread out. Work the grid. Keep in touch at all times." Kloss growled. "Find them."

The headmasters split up in search of the two Autobots, ready to gain more kills for their lord Aries.

Meanwhile, said Autobots had also separated to cover more ground. Then Rodimus had an idea. "I just realized something. If Ironhide was scheduled for the presses first thing this morning, chances are that's where he is, ready and waiting. I'm on my way there now."

" _Roger, Rodimus, I'll see you the-"_

A loud explosion over the comm nearly made Rodimus jump out of his alt mode. "Wheeljack? Wheeljack, are you all right?"

"I'd worry less about him and more about your own predicament!" Kloss drove around the corner and stopped in front of Rodimus's only other exit. "You're alone, isolated and you have me on your case. I move faster, think faster. Anything you can do, I can do ten times better. It's been fun watching you squirm, but it ends here!"

"Then shut up and bring it!" Rodimus shouted and made his engine roar, flames spewing out of his exhaust. "The only reason I've been putting up with you freaks is because you're only a secondary priority. But since you tried to torch my friend, all bets are off! Let's see who blinks first!"

Rodimus and Kloss drove straight at each other at full speed. Kloss fired two rockets, but Rodimus easily shot them down with the machine guns in his headlights. Neither warrior slowed down as they neared each other, almost nose to nose, waiting to see who bailed out first…and Kloss lost the battle of wills. He tried to turn at the last minute, but Rodimus slammed into him hard enough to send him flying onto his hood, crashing into a car pile upside down. Rodimus transformed part of his arm and fired a volley of electrostatic blasts that blew the headmaster, and Kloss, up on contact.

"Amateur." Rodimus sniffed. He cursed when two missiles hit the ground near him and he was on the run again. "For Prime's sake, what you bozos lack in quality, you make up for in quantity!"

XXXXXX

"Ow. Ow. Ow!" Darren stumbled out of the pod, holding his aching head. He hissed and poked the helmet attached to his skull. "You weren't kidding when you said it would hurt. But…other than the headache, I don't feel any-"

He froze when a scientist walked in, looking down at his clipboard. When he looked up and saw a clearly unhypnotized and unrestrained esper boy up and about, he slammed his hand on the emergency alarm near the door. Without thinking, Darren rushed forward and punched the man hard enough to send him crashing through the door and into a wall, possibly breaking his back on impact.

"Whoa. Did I do that?" Darren looked at his hands. He barely realized what he was doing before it was over, and he wasn't even using his powers. "Or was that you? Or bother of us?" Sunstreaker made a garbled nose, but Darren understood his meaning. "Yeah, that's what I thought. But now that that's over, let's scram!"

Darren ran out of the room and down the halls, following the directions he memorized to the factory level. He heard soldiers marching down the halls and Darren made sure to create as many barricades as possible before sprinting toward the manufacturing plant. He skidded to a stop in front of the lined up transectors and took a deep breath.

"Here you are." He panted. "I hope this headmaster thing works."

XXXXXX

"What do you mean the boy escaped?!" Aries shouted. "I thought his reconditioning was a success!"

"Well, obviously it wasn't." Pisces replied, annoyed at this unfortunate development as well. "Apparently, he's also linked himself to the Autobot and now he's in the bodyshop."

"That boy's head is mine!" Aries snarled and marched towards the door, but was stopped by Pisces. "Don't start with me, Pisces!"

"Stop acting like a brute and act like a general of Our Lady's noble order." Pisces hissed. "If you started blasting away at him, then you'll destroy everything we've worked for, for almost a year in a single day! Don't let him get to you."

Aries took a deep breath and asked in a calmer tone, "And what do you suggest we do?"

"I've ordered all exits to be sealed and posted extra talos guards around the perimeter." He said. "The body has no training in being a headmaster and he'll have nowhere to go. He's trapped."

"You two boys and your runaway toys." Thornment chuckled, walked past them. "The human has already served his purpose. The resources invested in him have not been entirely wasted. I'll kill the boy myself and we can focus on more important matters."

Down below, Darren stood in front of the transector trying to get it to move. "Come on! I know I'm a headmaster on some level, I'm Sunstreaker as well, but I can feel someone interfering."

He felt the ground shake, lightly at first, but the tremors slowly increased in pace, scaring Darren. "Please work. Please work!" He gritted his teeth. "I know this can work if I don't-"

A large form smashed through the wall and Darren screamed as Thornment entered the room, stomping toward him.

"Panic!" He squeaked.

XXXXXX

"Looks like you bozos just downgraded from serious threat to rank amateur in no time at all!" Rodimus said. He kept ramming a headmaster in the side until it crashed into a broken down van and exploded. "Whatever edge you guys had is gone!"

It was true. Unknown to Rodimus, the scientists were unhooking Sunstreaker's head back at the central base, causing the increased reflexes and psychic link they shared to be interrupted. This affected not only Darren, but the Hunter team as well, who found their combat capabilities drastically.

Which spelled trouble for headmaster warrior Reese, who was forced to resort to fighting Rodimus in bipedal mode to avoid getting turned into a trash compactor by the Autobot. He manage to force the Autobot to take cover with his plasma fire as he called the regional base for help.

"Headmaster Reese to OZ central. Respond! What's the situation?" He called in. "I'm getting psychic interference on my end-agh!"

Reese cried out as two missiles and multiple rockets tore him apart from behind. A modified Apache Longbow appeared in the sky above them and fired another volley of rockets that blew the already dead transector apart.

"That's right!" Rodimus yelled at the dead clone. "Get slagged!"

"Rodimus? What's going on here?" Tomahawk flew closer to the ground and switched forms. "And did I just kill some mech that looked like Sunstreaker?"

"First-I love ya babe, you saved my tailpipe." Rodimus said. "Second-this is a really long story that I'll tell you about later. Third-Wheeljack and Ironhide need help ASAP!"

"Um, okay?" Tomahawk blinked.

XXXXXX

Staring death in the face in its various forms was something that Darren was becoming all to use to since getting dragged into the Autobot/Decepticon war. But this was a predicament only a miracle could help him out of.

"You don't look so strong, boy. But of course, you must feel empowered after fighting brutes like Aries and Pisces." Thornment cackled.

"Shut up and tell your masters that I'm slave to no one!" Darren shouted. Then he realized the trick he was missing. "Duh! Head. Master. Of course!"

Something clicked at the back of his mind and Darren felt his body collapse into a crouch, the armor he was wearing folding together and snapping in place. In a split second, the head of Sunstreaker sat on the floor in front of Thornment…totally defenseless.

"This is wired!" Sunstreaker's voice said as his personality took over.

"You finally learned how to transform! Good for you, you learned something a protoforms could do in it's sleep!" She whipped her heat rods at the head, but it was snatched up before it was smashed by the powerful weapon.

One of the transectors jumped back from another whipped strike before attaching its head to the hard point on its neck. Sunstreaker gained control on his clone body and groaned.

Moving feels like an effort and it shouldn't!' Sunstreaker thought. 'Whatever those bastards are doing to the real me, it's…slowing me down!'

Die, Autobot!" Thornment transformed to her fighter mode and unfolded to fire her particle beam, almost hitting Sunstreaker in the chest.

"Yow!" Sunstreaker instinctively transformed to car mode and sped around Thornment as he drove to the other side of the room. "You'll forgive us if we're not privy to giving a slag about you, you crazy glitch! You're not just dealing with old flesh and blood Darren Radcliffe anymore!"

Sunstreaker fired a missile and blew out the wall, driving out the hole and landing hard on the ground. "We're-I'm Sunstreaker! And I'm out!"

Thornment flew outside, but the Autobot was already speeding out of the courtyard, firing another missile in her direction to hold her back. She stumbled back as it hit her chest and the Autobot crashed through the gates to freedom.

"Well," She remarked. "That's just unfortunate."

XXXXXX

Joshua Red and Veronica watched from the observation deck alongside a group of scientists as a large crane slowly loaded the still frozen body of Grimlock into the massive testing facility. As some of the other personnel gazed up at the metal goliath in awe, Veronica and Joshua were having a tense discussion.

"I can't do it, Red. Not on such short notice!" She said. "We've got two Skywatch mechanoids unaccounted for and you're asking me to fast-track another? I need more time!"

"We're out of time, Howard. It's war and we need soldiers!" Red said. "Just two hours ago, we've gotten word of another battle between the aliens in Xing that destroyed a town in the countryside. We can't hang back anymore."

"Then let me at least attempt to make contact with one of the factions. We know this is a civil war, so just let me-"

"No! Jackson told me about your plan and it's too risky." He cut her off. "For all we know, they could just be fighting over who gets to tear us apart first."

Veronica gritted her teeth. "You don't know that!"

"Neither do you." Red glared at her. "We need to show these beings that humanity will not tolerate extraterrestrial aggressors. If we don't show our strength, benevolent or not, they'll stomp all over us."

He glared up at Grimlock as if all this was his fault. "Whatever the risks, we have to take them. One thing I know for sure, we can't rely on anyone coming to our aid!"

Rebecca sighed and looked at Grimlock. As he passed by them, she could see her reflection in his red visor…and the primal rage hidden behind them.


	38. A Rude Awakening

Chapter 38-A Rude Awakening

Thanks to Tomahawk's timely intervention, Rodimus was able to retrieve both Wheeljack and Ironhide from the automobile "graveyard". Both Autobots were recovering in the medibay while Rodimus told everyone what he had encountered. He wasn't surprised by their surprised and horrified expressions after he finished his debriefing.

"Headmasters? OZ made headmasters from Sunstreaker?" Arcee gasped.

"Just when you think they can't sink any lower." Bulkhead grumbled. Rodimus nodded.

"Whatever they did to Sunny, they were very thorough with it. Their firepower, their reflexes, their battle instincts, it all seemed amplified." He said. "And they've copied his frame to the letter, even duplicating his built-in weapons!"

"What really worries me is what they know." Prowl said, looking very disturbed by this unfortunate development. "That soldier knew your names without either of you speaking them. They're making man-made cybertronians with seasoned soldiers psychically connected to Sunstreaker's mind somehow. They may even be gleaning information directly from his mind."

"Certainly seems possible with Thornment providing them aid." Ratchet said.

"But doesn't that mean he's alive? Along with Darren?" Moonracer asked. "Isn't that a good thing?"

"Moonracer, what Prowl means is that if they were able to learn Rodimus and Wheeljack's names, then it's possible they've learned other things about him as well." Optimus, who had been silent up until now, said. "They know about his past, his friends, likes, dislikes, where he's been…everything."

"Any ideas on what we should do, Prime?" Skyfire asked.

"We continue looking for Sunstreaker and Darren. This new development is very disturbing and we can't allow OZ to continue abusing cybertronian technology." Optimus said. "Keep an eye out for any strange activities and do not let your guard down. It's clear that they aren't taking prisoners anymore."

Optimus's ominous words hammered in how serious things were getting. OZ was entering their endgame and everyone would be dragged into the coming storm.

XXXXXX

Veronica got more nervous the closer zero hour got. Looking at Grimlock's frozen form, she saw the researchers from her science team running last minute checks on the NBE designated as Thunder Lizard-1, Fredericks came up with the codename, and it made her hate him even more.

Bad codenames aside, she had serious reservations about running a test on the ore advanced neural "leash" used to potentially control Thunder Lizard-1. She hated being the head of a project that could end badly for everyone, and she made her reservations known.

"Are we ready to proceed, doctor?" Red asked.

"Ready as we'll ever be, but I'm going to say this one more time." She stared up at the motionless goliath. "You're playing with fire. Procedures that took two months to perfect and were tailored specifically to the two initial acquisitions have had to be overhauled and reapplied in days. One false move, Agent Red, and disaster. We just need more time-"

"We have no more time. You've seen what's happening out there, Howard. Terra has become a battleground for robotic extraterrestrials, and now whatever covert methods they were enacting are being made obsolete. We have to assume they won't just patiently bide their time. A full-fledged confrontation is coming and we have to arm ourselves."

Veronica frowned and Red placed a hand on her shoulder in what he saw as a comforting gesture. "I appreciate your concerns. I share you misgivings, but this comes straight from the top. We need a big, blunt instrument," He pointed at Grimlock. "And this is it."

Veronica held back in voicing any further protests. She tried convincing Jackson to let her contact one of the alien factions, specifically the ones sporting the red symbol, but Fredericks had whispered I his ear and stonewalled any suggestions involving making open contact. He also gave a less than subtle warning that trying any unauthorized messages would result in her immediate termination from the group and imprisonment for insubordination. Everyone seemed more concerned with killing all the aliens instead of focusing on the openly hostile ones that required their attention, but Veronica knew that things were escalating too quickly for them to play it safe.

"Fine. Have it your way. But we've already got two rogues out there-somewhere-and I'm sure neither of us wants a third." She told him. "Thunder Lizard-1 has a higher grade of neural net, so we've had to introduce a far more complex inhibitor web. It should hold, but in terms of our available technology, we're still akin to cave men handling fusion rods."

"How soon?"

"Like I said, we're as ready as we can hope to be right now. But Agent Red, I'd have your mobile armor teams standing by." She turned to one of the head technicians on the project. "Status?"

We are showing complete neural overprint-synapse blockers are all present and correct."

"Internal readings are stabilizing." Another scientist reported. "TL-1's systems are starting to metabolize the plutonium stimulant."

"We are going to jumpstart the cognitive functions."

'Here we go!' Veronica thought and looked at Red. "Agent Red?"

The Skywatch senior officer took a deep breath and nodded. "Do it."

XXXXXX

Stasis lock was akin to a cybertronian coma. A dreamless sleep brought about from heavy damages too severe for the conscious mind to handle. All but the most vital functions shut down as the body redirects its energy to repair itself. Few remembered anything while being in stasis lock, aside from a disembodied feeling of floating in darkness.

This was no different for Grimlock, who had been in stasis lock for nearly four million years. It was something like being in a deep sleep for him and Grimlock appreciated having a decent recharge…until he was reawakened by the unsuspecting Skywatch scientists.

A strong surge of energy ran through his body, supercharging his long dormant circuitry, assaulting sensitive neural circuit boards that brought him back to life. This sudden jolt jump-started his brain, and with it, brought back a lot of recent memories for Grimlock. None of them good.

" _I'm warning you, Grimlock!"_ Optimus Prime's voice rang in his head. " _This continued insubordination will not be tolerated. Any further action will be considered an act of a renegade and dealt with accordingly!"_

Another jolt brought another memory.

" _Forget Prime. He may not like the way we do things, but he knows we get results. The way it works is, he says one thing-officially-and we do the other unofficially."_ Grimlock said to his Dynobots. " _Trust me, there'll be no fallout."_

" **You deceived us! Lied to us!"**

" **Led us into the maelstrom…and killed us!"**

Images of a battle flashed through his mind's eye. He and his team battling a powerful enemy. A mountain spewing fire, the ground breaking apart. Fire and heat all around him…a searing pain…rage.

XXXXXX

In the control center, alerts were popping up on all monitors, showing various errors. Agent Red and Veronica were filled with dread as the worst possible scenario occurred.

"Doctor Howard, something's wrong! Encephialo graphic readings just went through the roof!"

"Shit! Cut the power to the main kinostatic emitters, now!" She yelled through the radio. "Before-"

A ferocious roar tore through the building as Grimlock's red visor came to life and he suddenly came alive. He thrashed his big, powerful arms, smashing apart the scaffoldings and sending many on site workers falling and flying in different directions.

"Cryo-squad, move in!" The MA unit leader ordered. The twelve man talos squad moved in and started shooting streams of pure liquid nitrogen at Grimlock's legs to immobilize him. "The rest of you, target the hostile, but await executive clearance! Do not, I repeat, do not open fire!"

Grimlock didn't even look their way as he stomped his foot and sent the men flying, breaking apart the floor like glass. Joshua watched the mech from the observation deck as he tore apart the talos with his bare hands and swung his arms, smashing apart more expensive equipment with ease.

"Status, damn it!" He shouted. "Howard, TL-1 is mobile. How is this possible?"

"I don't know!" Veronica yelled, checking the status of the neural clamps on their subject. "Nothing's working. All the cerebro-checks and auto-prompt filters just…burned out en masse. I can't establish control."

Joshua gritted his teeth and closed his eyes. "All tactical units…fire at will!"

The talos units fired on Grimlock with HEAT rounds and kinetic shells designed to destroy other talos with maximum efficiency. Too bad Grimlock was ten times stronger than the average terran mecha. He wasn't fazed by the bullets pelting his armor and glared at them, giving a savage growl. He slammed his fists into the ground and began to transform.

Agent Red, Veronica, and the science team all watched in awe as Grimlock's hulking form reconfigured into a giant beast just as powerful and fearsome-a tyrannosaurus rex!

Rushing forward, he tore through the Murphy talos like they were tin foil, slamming into the wall and crashing into the next room. Another demolished wall finally led Grimlock outside, where he ran towards freedom, leaving behind a trail of destruction, destroyed robots and dead men and women in his wake.

"Oh my god," Veronica gasped. "We barely slowed him down."

"This is a disaster!" Her partner, Doctor Weston cried out. "What do we do now that he's out?!"

"We don't panic. Sanitize the facility, strip out anything and everything." Red said. "Then find out what went wrong and how to fix it."

Veronica spun around in shock and anger. "Fix it? Did you not see what just happened? One of our assets just killed half the people here and marched out the front door without as much as a scratch! I told you we were cave men handling fusion rods!"

"And I'm telling you this thing can't be allowed to just wander off." He replied firmly. "Weston, get me a progress report on Thunder Lizards 2, 3, 4, and 5."

Veronica growled and pushed past Red. Great, yet another mess she had to clean up. With people like him in charge of "planetary" defense, Terra was screwed ten ways from Sunday. Unseen by her or Red, one of the security personnel grinned and slipped out the door into the staircase. He quietly made his way to the rec room, where he made a private call.

"It's Kloss. What you said would happen, just happened." He said. "Yes. I've already purged the virus. There'll be no trace when they scan-analyze the system. As for TL-1, he's yours for the taking!"

On the other line, the Zodiac Pisces grinned.

XXXXXX

Grimlock charged without purpose, without distinction. He had no idea where he was…or what time it was either. Once the red haze of his abrupt awakening faded, he was left with a thousand questions and no answers.

He saw dozens of tiny organic bipeds running out of his path. Cars were crushed, footprint shaped craters left in his wake, and entire roads were turning into potch-marked, un-drivable stretches of asphalt and concrete. The little creatures ran away from him in fear, but he could care less. What he was concerned about was the situation he was currently in.

The last thing he remembered was fighting the ancient Seeker, Sprawl. The Con was beating his team down in a field of ultra-high levels of energon, and Grimlock had initiated a fallback plan he had in case his team lost. A volcanic eruption followed by tons of exploding energon had nearly killed them all, but apparently he was in stasis lock, and he spent all this time repairing his body.

"H-how long?" Grimlock asked himself. His vocoder was a bit rusty from centuries of disuse. "Where…Dynobots?"

He stomped onto a playground, causing parents and their children to go running for the hills to avoid getting stomped on. He paused to get a scope of his surroundings, but the little barely noticeable stinging he felt from the police shooting at him made him growl.

"Looks like I'm scaring the local ants.' He thought. He would've tore those little scraplets apart, but this wasn't the time.

He snorted hot steam from his nostrils and continued on his way, stomping past a school in his path. The teachers and students jumped in their seats as a giant robot dinosaur rushed past the building, nearly sending it jumping in place. Grimlock had no idea where he was going, and his attention wasn't focused on the damage he was accusing. He was still wondering who reactivated him. His internal chronometer was a contradictory mess. Sensor range limited. All he had was a recall chip to whisk him back to his ship, the Grimstone.

If it was still in one piece. Chances are, its orbit decayed long ago and he'll materialize within a burning, twisted ruin. As Grimlock stood atop a hill outside a town, he made a heart wrenching realization.

He was alone.

Utterly alone.

XXXXXX

"Hmm," Inside an airship, Pisces and Thornment watched the drone footage of Grimlock stomping across the landscape down below. "Where is he going?"

"Honestly, sir, I doubt he knows…or cares." One of the pilot's said. "His current course, however, will bring him to the Lorincha Dam."

"Then that is where I will introduce myself." Thornment said.

"You want to face that beast alone?" Pisces asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Grimlock is one of the strongest Autobots in Prime's army. Even you won't stand a chance against him, let alone the upgraded Zygarts and Orions." She said. "Not in open confrontation at least."

"What do you intend to do?"

Recruit him to our case. In his position, he has no other choice by to accept my offer."

XXXXXX

Grimlock stood on the edge of a fast moving river near the Larincha Damn. Back in robot mode, he gazed at the rushing waters doing the one thing he wasn't adept at-contemplating.

He was a force of nature. He tended to simply go at things, removing obstacles rather than going around them. Planning was more Swoop's thin, but this was a whole new scenario.

"This is bad." He told himself. No back-up. No intel. No real idea even of whom or what he was up against. This was an oddity for the mech who actually prided himself on teamwork.

He had to wonder if anyone came looking for them. Were they just counted as casualties of war, their names inscribed on some ebonite memorial, and now just faded, distant memories? Grimlock doubted it. The Dynobots, for all their battlefield prowess, weren't most well-liked bots on the Autobot force. He wouldn't be surprised if Optimus threw a party the minute they were deemed MIA.

Grimlock shook his head. "Enough thinking. I just have to move forward. I can take anything this tiny planet can throw at me."

There was a bright flash behind him and Grimlock drew his energo-sword, which unfolded and hummed with energy as he spun around to decapitate the poor bastard that chose to sneak up on him right then and there. To his surprise, his blade sliced through a tree instead of a person.

"Hold, Grimlock," Thornment walked up to him, her hands raised to show she was unarmed. "I mean you know harm."

"Says you!" Grimlock growled. "Who are you?"

"I am Thornment of the Order." She said. "Here to make you an offer you can't refuse."

"Try me."

"Ha! Direct and to the point. I admire that, Grimlock. We're quite alike, you and I. We both operate on the fringes, neither bowing to convention or protocol. To us, allegiance is a convenience, not an obligation. Which is why," She held out her hand. "I propose an alliance. You and me-against the world!"

Grimlock stared at her. "You can't be serious."

"Before you refuse, consider your current position. You're a rogue, you know that? You're on data file B-341-101 on Ultra Magnus' hit list of wanted cybertronians. There's no going back." She chuckled. "Your Dynobots are long gone, dead and buried, and you're stuck here on an alien world with the Decepticons poised to ignite Armageddon."

"And you?" Grimlock asked. "What's your position?"

"I've allied myself with a group of like-minded individuals who plan on inciting a revolution of their own and bringing about a new world order, here on Terra. But it's not yet ripe enough to unveil its scale or intent." She edged a bit closer to him. "You're an outcast among your Autobots, Grimlock, but in the Order, mechs like you are more than welcome. All we need you to do is delay the Autobots and Decepticons long enough for OZ to make their move."

Grimlock was quiet. He was still trying to process what she told him. He was a wanted criminal now, all but disowned by the Autobots. That did eliminate a lot of options for him. But this femme…she didn't sound very sane to him.

"Come on, Grimlock." Thornment pushed him. "Are you that stubborn, that mired in outmoded notions of loyalty that you're willing to isolate yourself so totally and utterly? Why do you even hesitate?"

Grimlock's blood red optic visor stared into her yellow eyes. "Because I just remembered… the name of the cult that leveled my home city back on Cybertron because they executed one of your members for extortion and bribery."

Thornment froze. Indeed, the Order had laid siege to Simfur due to the population raising a hand against one of their own. Seeking to teach them a lesson, Ember had led the assault herself and the destruction of the city was total. Was Grimlock…?

"W-what? That-that was nothing." She stammered.

"True." He agreed. Then he swung his fist and punched Thornment in the chest, knocking her back away from the river bank and crashing through a couple of trees. Grimlock chuckled and stomped forward. "I know about your Order. Your little cult has caused lots of problems for both Autobots and Decepticons. Killed lots of people before and during the war. Now think; if I returned to Cybertron with a high-ranking Order member ready for Spark isolation, I wonder what kind of reward I'd get? They'd most likely tear up my warrants and give me a hero's welcome!"

He swung his sword and released a wave of energy that tore up the ground and blasted Thornment off her feet. "The business with Simfur was just some extra motivation!"

"I offer you a world-or at least a share of it-and you throw it back in my face?" Thornment hissed. "You're just like the beast whose form you mimic, too big, too stupid to ever change! Even if it means extinction!"

She transformed into her aerial mode and fired her forward mounted particle beam cannon. She shot multiple beams at Grimlock, who deflected them with his energo-sword while displaying a surprising amount of speed in his movements. She slowly edged closer to Thornment and once he got close enough, raised his sword to cut her in half. She transformed and weaved around his sword before leaping back and slamming her hands into the ground. The ground behind Grimlock broke apart and two vines grabbed his arms before pulling them back behind him.

"You are a warrior of great intensity and resolve, Grimlock, but as a strategist you are sadly deficient." Thornment said, changing forms again. "Still, as a warrior, I will grant you a warrior's death!"

She fired another particle beam, this one much stronger than before, but Grimlock managed to inch his body to the side so that the beam shot over his shoulder. It blew up the tree behind him and knocked him onto his chest.

"I'm going to tear you apart!" Grimlock roared.

Grimlock slammed his fists into the ground and smoothly converted into his beast mode before charging at Thornment. Opening his mouth, he fired a large stream of flames at her, forcing her to retreat. Thornment changed to bipedal form and swung her heat rods at his body, wrapping them around his large form and slowly began to squeeze. The heat rods grew in temperature and began to eat away at his armor.

You never stood a chance. You're a powerhouse, but you're low on energon and you're utterly powerless in a long range fight. You may be strong, but I am fast." Thornment said. "And I have the powers of my gods on my side!"

Grimlock couldn't move. The heat rods continued to squeeze him without letting up, and he could feel his armor creaking from the strain. If he didn't do something soon, he was going to get quartered by a motor-mouthed femme with a thing for pointy flowers!

The image of his Dynobots flashed through his mind. Fierce, loyal, unwavering in their commitment to whatever course of action he initiated. And he betrayed them without a second thought. Activating a back-up plan that could've killed them all without any regard for their opinions on it. All it granted them was a pyrrhic victory.

Grimlock gritted his teeth in frustration. He wasn't going to die here. Not without knowing what happened to his team, to make his peace. Thornment was spouting slag. If he survived, chances are that the other could have too. So, against every primal instinct not to, Grimlock mentally triggered the recall chip.

"No," Thornment growled as Grimlock's form glowed before vanished from her grasp. "NO!"

XXXXXX

For a split second, Grimlock thought he was going to end up dead for his gamble. But to his surprise, he reappeared within an intact chamber-the Grimstone was completely intact!

"Home." Grimlock grumbled. It was the closest thing to a home he had-a place where he and his Dynobots had their various adventures, scraps, team moments, a place where they could act freely without judgment.

Checking the ship's sensors, he saw that the Grimstone was buried in ice and the surface was not in detection range. He survived the recall, but the ship was buried too deep to be operational.

"I'm going to find my friends," Grimlock vowed, clenching his massive fists. "And then I'm going to tear Thornment and OZ apart!"

XXXXXX

"That fragging brute!" Thornment raged as she kicked over an unused transector. "He brags about his strength and he has the gall to run?! I'll rip his saurian head in two!"

"I take it your battle didn't go well?" Pisces said as he walked into the room.

"Don't start with me, Pisces." She sneered.

"Just curious." He said, backing up a bit. "And could you please not beat up on the transectors? They're expensive, and a pain to manufacture in such a short time."

"Why do you care? These clones couldn't even beat two Autobots."

"Only because the boy was interfering with the psychic link. I'm having Aries transport the Autobot hub to my main headquarters in Tampa. Chances are they will seek his head, and we cannot have that distraction right now."

Thornment noted the edge in Pisces' voice. "Are we mobilizing now?"

"Yes," Pisces answered curtly. "Aries has given the order to launch the invasion in seven days."

"And what about Grimlock?"

"My mole in Skywatch informed me that they're in the process of moving the mechs designated Thunder Lizards 2, 3, 4, and 5 to a forward operational facility. I'll let those so-called planetary defenders think they have Swoop, Slag, Snarl, and Sludge under their control, when we are really pulling the strings."

Thornment chuckled. "What a fitting way to end Grimlock-torn apart by the tooth and claw of his fellow Dynobots!"


	39. Maximum Dinobots part 1

Chapter 39-Maximum Dinobots part 1

Grimlock, Slag, Swoop, Sludge, Snarl. Together they were the Dynobots-a semi-autonomous unit within the larger Autobot war machine. The more insane the mission, the dirtier the job, the more they liked it. It wasn't a stretch to say that as beast formers, the Dynobots were more beast than bot, and relished the primal thrill every battle gave them. And, if, sometimes they sidestepped the chain of command and went on their own sweet way…the end justified the means. Of course, it couldn't last. Their motto was "crash and burn".

But Grimlock never thought it would end like this.

The Dynobot leader stood on the edge of the Franz Josef glacier in Eldia, South Island, looking down at his uncovered ship, the Grimstone. He spent the last few days using the ship's onboard weapons to blast away the thick ice burying it, and now he was finally done. If only the damn ship wasn't beyond repair.

Grimlock assessed his current situation. Stranded on a dismal speck of a planet called Terra, the fate of his teammate uncertain. His ship unable to even lift off the ground. Stuck in a beast mode unsuited to anything on this planet thanks to his crippled T-cog (Swoop did say it was going to screw them over one day). Marked as a renegade-or worse-a deserter by those he once deemed comrades in arms. Hunted by Thornment, a psychotic religious cultist who offered him lackey status in some deranged revolution and was turned down flat. Now she and her new friends want him silenced…permanently.

To top it off, Terra was staring down Armageddon-with Megatron poised to take the planet by force. Grimlock sighted, letting loose a deep rumble in his chest. Really, how much worse can it get?

XXXXXX

'I wonder whose bright idea was it to stage the testing operation in a closed down theme park.' Veronica thought as she and Agent Joshua Red stood on the catwalk overlooking the park's dinosaur exhibition.

Down below were the two targets to be used as cannon fodder to test out their new "warriors". A decommissioned M1 Abrams tank and a silver biplane someone got from Gaia knows where. Once everything was set in place, Red gave the order for the show to begin.

"Thrill me."

"Skywatch tactical, this is Howard," She called in. "Activate Thunder Lizards 2-5. Identify targets, actualize…and engage."

On her command, the four Dynobots still stuck in stasis lock were activated remotely and mentally commanded to engage. Thunder Lizard 2, aka Slag, stomped forward in his triceratops beast mode and belched out a bright stream of intense flames at the heavily armored tank, which didn't stand a chance against the thousand degrees that began melting its armor. Thunder Lizard 3, Sludge, ran forward in his long necked brontosaurus mode and grabbed the biplane with his mouth, flinging it into the air for Thunder Lizard 4, Swoop, to fly like a shooting star and cut the plane to ribbons with his sharp, steel tip wings. Lastly, Thunder Lizard 4, Snarl, marched up to the burning wreck of the tank in stegosaurs mode and began slamming his tail into it with tremendous strength.

'It never stops surprising me at how powerful these beings are.' Veronica thought, thinking back to that titanic fight in the Attilan caves. "Four point six seconds. All targets destroyed and zero collateral. What do you think, Agent Red?"

"I think," He began, glaring down at the Dynobots. "That we've been here before. Apparent success followed by mysterious failure. What's to say the cycle won't repeat with these four?"

'I've warned about this dozens of times before, you moron. You pushed for their deployment along with Fredericks, so don't start backtracking now.' She thought scathingly, though she outwardly maintained her professional façade. "Well, we've made significant improvements to the inhibitor web. Don't ask me how, but any software kinks we've encountered in the past seemed to have, well, ironed themselves out."

The disaster that led to the loss of Grimlock had been thoroughly investigated. People were questioned, computers taken apart, inspected and put back together, and the entire system was overhauled, but nothing out of the ordinary could be found. Both Red and Veronica were starting to suspect sabotage, but neither could find evidence of tampering.

"Strangely, I find that far from reassuring." Red said.

"As do I, Red. But as you've consistently informed me over the course of this mission-our orders come straight from the top." Veronica quipped.

She was very satisfied at the glare Red gave her for her remark. That's one point for her.

XXXXXX

In the OZ base in Dallas, Texas, Aries sat in his office listening to the report coming in from the mole he had in Skywatch. OZ had only learned the existence of the secret Osean organization Skywatch just a year ago, which was formed after the discovery of some alien being in the early 1900s. Despite having a couple of moles in the group, they could barely get any information on Skywatch without compromising their position, so they had to play it safe until Skywatch did something stupid, which was disappointingly common considering that not even the president was aware of their existence.

It wasn't completely fruitless, however, as they had learned that Skywatch had numerous cybertronians in their possession. Among them the Dynobots, two Decepticons and another unknown mech. It was through Kloss that he had the means to completely subvert/submerge the neural nets of the four Dynobots to make it seem like the implants had failed.

"Well?"

" _The test run was a complete success. As far as they're concerned, Skywatch's little anti-alien combat unit is ready to be rolled out."_ Agent Kloss reported. _"Thanks to you."_

"Yes, thanks to me. You've done good work inside their organization, Kloss. Keep up the good work and you'll be rewarded generously." Aries smirked. "Aries out."

He took a long, hard swig of his brandy and leaned back in his seat. He heard the door open and close, soft footsteps on his lush red carpet.

"How are the Barricade clones?"

"Prepped and ready to go." Scorpio answered, heading straight to the bar. "It took some effort, but Pisces and Thornment finally ironed out the kinks in the psychic link connecting them to Barricade's head. Working with a dead Decepticon brain is a lot more difficult than working with a live Autobot's."

"As long as they're combat ready, I don't care, Scorpio. We're nearing the promised day, and there are still some unaccounted wild card to deal with."

"Darren Radcliffe." Scorpio nodded. "Did you find him?"

"No, but he's been attacking our facilities all along the mid-west. Our efforts to track him haven't been very forthcoming." Aries sighed and rubbed his forehead. "And don't get me started on Skywatch."

"You'd think those fools would learn that attempting to leash the Dynobots won't work."

"They don't have a choice. The growing cybertronian war has them spooked, and when people are afraid, they make mistakes that could've been easily avoided."

"Well don't stress out over it. Hand the matter over to Thornment and focus on the real issue," Scorpio walked over to the one way mirror hiding the hidden storage area that had four dozen Sunstreaker clones, all in three different colors parked in rows of three. "Figuring out how to explain to Ophiuchus what we're all doing."

Aries frowned, annoyed that Scorpio was bringing this up again. "She'll understand when we hand her Prime and the cybertronian corpses."

"You better hope so," Scorpio sipped his whisky with a grunt. "Because neither of us wants to deal with Sagittarius or Gemini. Fucking pricks."

"Amen to that."

XXXXXX

In an entirely different state, a warehouse violently blew up from the inside, sending a mushroom cloud of flames shooting into the air and flaming debris everywhere. A yellow muscle car flew out of the flames and landed on the street, swerving around to face the burning building.

"Right," A voice said from its speakers. "Now I'm mad."

The car's hood slid open and a missile pod rose up. Two missiles were fired at the warehouse and caused an even bigger explosion that completely destroyed what few merchandise that was still intact. The deafening booms could be heard for almost a mile away.

"I know how you feel. Because, well, we feel the same stuff. Comes from sharing a brain." Darren who was sitting in Sunstreaker's driver's seat as a Holomatter avatar, sighed. "I'm sorry, this is just a bit strange, Sunstreaker. It just feels like we're talking to ourselves?"

I suppose so. Still haven't gotten used to this whole headmaster thing. Probably never will." Sunstreaker burned metal as he drove down the street the minute the emergency forces and law enforcement arrived on the scene. He was gone before the police could spot him. "No offense, but I'm a serial "me"."

"None taken. And anyway, we didn't come up exactly empty." Darren held up a flash drive. "We have whatever is in that shadow drive we found buried in their server. If we're right, and this is another OZ front, then there may be something here we can use. At the very least, it'll signpost our next port of call."

The past few days were hard for them both. Darren and Sunstreaker had to quickly adjust to their new symbiosis. Darren was the heart of their headmaster bond, and they both knew Sunstreaker's personality was dominant so long as they were combined. And unlike the other headmaster units, Darren allowed his consciousness to come to the forefront instead of suppressing it. Without Darren, his body was just a lifeless husk of terran made metal and circuitry powered by energon.

They spent a week traveling the country, hitting suspected OZ facilities such as factories and warehouses owned by Epsilon Holdings. Darren was forced to steal food and drinks for himself (putting on that stupid hybrid armor was harder than taking it off. Made bathroom visits really stressful) and trying to survive without contacting their friends was tough. But they were slowly making progress, and their dedication to get their lives back kept their drive strong.

Darren plugged the drive into Sunstreaker's dashboard computer. As information flashed on the screen, Darren and Sunstreaker's shared mind instantly downloaded it. And they weren't expecting what they found.

"Huh. Weird." Sunstreaker muttered.

"Yeah." Darren frowned, squinting at the encoded data. "What's a Dynobot?"

"Something of an ancient relic, but according to this, current OZ business."

Darren smirked. "Which makes it…"

"…Our business. Dallas-here we come!"

XXXXXX

Grimlock sat at the ship's computer, hunched over the console as he typed in a message. With his ship out of commission and its ground bridge just barely operational, he needed a new way to get things done. From what he saw from his earlier rampage, the natives weren't even close to space colonization, which meant the humans didn't have anything close to what he'd needed to get it spaceworthy again.

Thornment said Megatron was ready to bring this planet into his thrall of chaos, but from the looks of it, he was barely out of phase 2. And if Megatron really was here, then there was a high possibility that Optimus Prime was here as well to hold him back. His only hope was to contact any Autobot forces on Terra and wait for a response.

"Hope this works." Grimlock said and pressed the send button. This would drain much of the Grimstone's capacitor cells, so he only had one shot at this. "Funny, never thought I would count on Prime for help."

Outside the ship, a helicopter circled over the glacier. It was a cover recon chopper using highly advanced-too advanced-stealth technology to cloak itself from the Grimstone's proximity sensors.

"General Aries, visual confirms what we got from the satellite telemetry." The pilot reported. "We have him."

Back in the central base, Thornment smirked. "Excellent. We're ready to begin. Ready Tsunami unit. Open assault in five…"

At the North Pole, a team of blue armored Sunstreaker clones were assembled in front of the newly refurbished MASS device. At Thornment's signal, Pisces activated the machine and the clones were engulfed in a swirling green vortex that whisked them away in a bright flash of light. In the span of a few seconds, they reappeared on the edge of the crater the Grimstone was sitting in.

"Hm?" Grimlock heard the ship's proximity sensors going off. Immediately he knew who it was. Looks like OZ finally found him.

"Stupid humans." He grumbled and walked toward the entry hatch. If those puny morons thought he was just going to sit back and let them take him, then they really don't know him at all.

Outside, the Tsunami headmaster unit was lined up along the cliff and had their heat cannons focused on the ship.

"On my mark," The squad leader said. "Get his attention!"

They fired their heat cannons at once, focusing on a single point in the ship's hull. Keeping their attacks sustained, their combined attacks started melting through the ship's outer hull very slowly. But as they burned their way into the ship, no one noticed a giant hand punching out of the ground behind them.

"Hugh? What's-" A headmaster turned around just in time to see the inside of Grimlock's maw before the Dynobot snatched him up in his jaws and snapped him in two.

Grimlock headbutted another headmaster off the cliff and spun around, clamping his teeth on another's blaster arm, forcing the soldier to shoot two of his comrades before having said arm torn off. He swung his tail at another poor soul who was hit so hard that his legs were ripped to shreds as he crashed into a tangled heap.

"This guy's so much bigger and faster than what they said in the debriefing!" A headmaster said as he slammed his knee into Grimlock's face.

"We've barely started and we already lost four men!" Another soldier cried out, transforming and speeding back in reverse to avoid getting crushed under Grimlock's foot.

"Quit mewling and keep him busy!" The unit leader shouted and jumped on Grimlock's back, attaching a targeting coin onto his neck.

"Huh?" Grimlock blinked and in those few seconds he found himself encased in a swirling emerald vortex, hindering his vision. With the targeting coin in place, the MASS device located and transported his body from the Eldia glacier…to the middle of a busy street at noon in the heart of a town!

The concrete cratered under his immense weight, and a car crashed into his foot. People, startled and now panicking at the sudden appearance of a giant robot t-rex that literally appeared out of thin air, started running as fast as they could, though some just stared in awe at him, regardless of the potential danger.

"Oh…frag." He cursed. Looks like he was just about to learn just how much worse things can get.

XXXXXX

Agent Red almost spat out his coffee when one of the techies suddenly yelled out the sudden reappearance of Thunder Lizard 1. He ran over to the survey station for a closer look.

"Do we have a confirmed visual?" He asked.

"No, sir. But everything points to Thunder Lizard 1."

Red narrowed his eyes. This was way too convenient for his liking, and he hated coincidences in this line of work. "All this time, nothing. Then right back on our doorstep. How…convenient."

"Sir?"

"Never mind. however it got there, it's our problem. I want a complete communications blackout. Cut phone lines and disable all local cell networks." He commanded. "No one in, no one out. Anything airborne, either force it down or shoot it down. Whatever it takes to contain this. Seal Fallon off!"

"Yes sir." The officer nodded.

"Weston!" Red turned to the extremely stressed out scientist. "Status?"

"Thunder Lizards 2- are en route, Red." Weston said. "And Gaia help anyone caught between them!"

XXXXXX

Thornment and Aries watched the footage of Grimlock's massive form lumbering through the middle of Fallon, in full view of hundreds of townspeople.

"This will certainly throw the Autobots into a panic," Aries said. "Along with those fools in Skywatch."

"I can't wait to see a battle between Dynobots. Let's see how Grimlock's years of battle experience helps him against his own team!" Thornment cackled.

"Guys," Scorpio called out. "We have company."

Thornment looked over to one of the external cameras and saw a red sports car with orange flames sitting right outside the front gates to the building. It was Rodimus.

"So I see." She said in a dangerously low voice.

"How'd he find us?" Aries asked.

"It doesn't matter. I'll take care of him myself." Thornment walked to the hangar doors to greet their guest. "We should at least have one outsider bear witness to the death of some of history's strongest warriors."

XXXXXX

"So this is where the magic happens." Rodimus said to himself. "I hope the Magnificence didn't lead me on a wild goose chase before it burned out, or I've just set myself up for a lot of ripping from Bulkhead."

Standing in front of the bad guy's base of operations in broad daylight was a very bad decision even Rodimus acknowledged as reckless. But he had to know if this was the place. The Magnificence, an ancient yet strange relic that was supposed to know everything based on universal probability, had told him that OZ's main base of operations was most likely located in Osea's southeastern region. And the most prominent target was the main HQ of Epsilon Holdings. Having just gotten done with laying some demons to rest (see future chapter of Distant Stars: Revelation), Rodimus was not in the mood for any slag.

"Come on, baddies!" Rodimus yelled, honking his horn. "I'm right here, ready to kick some ass! Doesn't feel good having someone knock at your door, does it? I'm here to repay you for that stunt you assholes pulled last week!"

His challenge was answered as a lavender beam hit the ground behind him. Rodimus was sent crashing through the games and transformed to land on his feet. Thornment shifted from her alt mode and sprinted at him.

"You want to fight, boy?" She hollered, swinging her spike studded heat whips around her body. "Then fight!"

Thornment swung her whips at him, tearing up the fancy grass lawn in her brutal attack. He dodged one whip, but another wrapped around his arm, and he was yanked off his feet. She threw him into a statue before slamming him into the ground. Thornment pulled him towards her, but he dug his feet into the ground and shot a volley of electrostatic blasts at her chest.

"How'd you like that?" He smirked.

Thornment's eyes flashed and she gave a hollow shriek that rattled his steel bones. She leapt at him, rammed her shoulder into his face, and, as he staggered back, spin-kicked him hard enough to rip some metal from his cheek. She began punching and clawing at his face and chest, digging gouges into his chest plate, clawing at his face, digging her knuckles onto his arms.

Rodimus was unprepared for this sudden surge of strength and took the brunt of her assault before he was able to kick her off. He rolled over and spat out a piece of his teeth groaning in pain. Thornment stood over him, power flowing off her body in invisible but tangible waves.

"What's the matter, boy? Where's all that bravado you had? Did that ass whooping take the wind out of your sails?" She taunted.

Rodimus glared up at her and spat at her feet.

"Hmm. Looks like I'll just have to beat that rebellious attitude out of you." She said before she started whipping Rodimus repeatedly with her heat rods. "It's time I taught you how things go in the real world, Autobot!"

XXXXXX

Rodimus grunted as he hit the wall and crumpled to the floor. Thornment shut the doors behind her and picked up a metal beam as he stalked towards him.

"Count yourself lucky, Rodimus. If I'd wanted you dead, you'd have met Primus a long time ago. This…is just play!" She swung the beam and smacked Rodimus across the face, knocking him onto his back. Part of his jaw was nearly dislocated and he could barely move because of the searing burns and gouges along his body. Thornment tossed the beam aside and slowly circled him like a hyena going in for the kill. "The truth of it is, I want you to see the full scope of what is now unfolding in all its terrible glory. The magnificent breadth of my vision. And for that, I need you broken, tamed…and hobbled."

She grabbed his right leg and twisted it until she heard a sickening crack and Rodimus wailed in pain, clawing at the floor. She left him writhing on the floor and walked over to the monitor, showing drone footage of Grimlock in Fallon. Two headmasters grabbed Rodimus and dragged him after her.

"I admire your tenacity, Rodimus, I really do." She said. "I've heard stories of how you've led a revolution against Zeta Prime's regime in Nyon. For all the good that did you after it was razed to the ground."

"You," Rodimus coughed. "Don't know slag about me."

"You're right, I don't. Nor do I particularly care. However, I'd be a foot to ignore you. Your brash attitude hides a deceptively cunning mind." Thornment chuckled. "I mean, given that our strike against you was particularly random, an exercise really, you've stubbornly stuck at this, determined to settle the score, or perhaps rescue poor little Sunstreaker. You even found your way here! You really must tell me how."

Thornment motioned to the monitor. "Our main event won't be starting for a while, so in the meantime, we'll have our Dynobots perform for us."

XXXXXX

"Thornment! Is this it? Is this what you wanted?!" Grimlock roared, stomping down the street, crushing cars and shattering windows with his loud bellows. Police forces opened fired on him, but their tiny bullets barely caught his notice as he waited for some kind of response. "The beast is unleashed! A very public monster! Well fine! I'm happy to oblige!"

Grimlock stomped over to a park and transformed mid-stride, drawing his red sword and standing tall in full view of the humans. "Whatever it is you have waiting for me, bring it on!"

XXXXXX

Sunstreaker sped down the highway at full speed, completely disregarding the speed limit. Though Darren could've forced Sunstreaker to slow down, he was more concerned about the news reports they were getting of the giant robot dinosaur stomping around. After explaining to Darren who the Dynobots were, Darren had to ask his own question.

"Tell me something, if all hell's about to break loose in Fallon, why are we heading west?" he asked. "Shouldn't we be doing something about these Dinobots?"

"It's Dynobots." Sunstreaker corrected. "D-Y-"

"Dinobots. Like Dinosaurs, you see that right? What they change into?" Darren interrupted. "Work with me, Sunny!"

Sunstreaker sighed. "Dallas is where the OZ hub is. Likely it's where my actual head is, too. Guarded by the Zodiac and their psychotic pet femme." He explained. "And their plan revolves around the unlimited access it grants to their headmaster army!"

"Yes, but Fallon's about to become a battleground. We-"

"Should do what? Try to fight 'em? We barely lasted again Thornment, what's one lone headmaster going to do against a Dynobot who can fight Optimus and Megatron to a standstill?" Sunstreaker replied. Darren knew he wasn't being his usually selfish self. He genuinely meant it. "Being an Autobot… is meaning we have to pick our battles. We can't save everyone. The best we can do is hope our friends can do something about it, because Grimlock's temper tantrum is very public right now."

Darren rubbed his forehead and sighed. "I know. It's just…we have to end this quickly."

"And we will, Darren." Sunstreaker replied. "We will."

XXXXXX

Grimlock waited patiently for any sign of Thornment or her OZ headmasters. He deduced that the only reason he was warped here was because she wanted a public fight. A monster ravages a small town and a hero emerges to save the people.

'Question is,' Grimlock thought. 'Who is hero?'

Then he felt the ground shake. Softly at first, but it grew to earthquake levels. Grimlock spun around, eyes widening as he recognized the sound of those roars. "It can't be!"

Three more saurian mechanoids came crashing through a building, sending debris everywhere as Slag, Sludge, and Snarl stomped after Grimlock, their designated target.

At OZ central, Thornment turned to her tech-team. "Loosen the neural dampeners by thirty percent. Let some of who they are come to the surface. I want them at their savage best!"

"So Thornment lied. You did survive!" Grimlock laughed, deeply relieved to see his team alive. But his happiness died when Slag tried to ram him. "Slag?"

Snarl bit at his legs, while Sludge swung his long neck at him, trying to knock him over. Grimlock was puzzled at the animalistic behavior of his team. Even Swoop, wasn't responding coherently, diving low and swiping his talon's at Grimlock's head.

"Snarl, Sludge, Swoop!" He yelled. "What's wrong with you?!"

XXXXXX

Red and Veronica ran up the stairs to the roof of their secrecy facility where a helicopter was waiting for the Skywatch agent. The man didn't stay to listen to the reports of their missing secret weapon as he suddenly made for his personal chopper.

"Thunder Lizard 1 has been engaged, Red. But there's that six inexplicable drop in neural net cohesion." Weston said, trying to keep pace with them. "Same as before."

"Inexplicable," Red grumbled. "Yeah, right. And Fallon?"

"Sealed off-tight as a drum. Nothing in, nothing out!" He said as they reached the roof. "Cellular networks all disabled. Landlines too. And we're enforcing a forty-mile radius no fly zone."

"Good, keep me updated at regular intervals." Red said. "Howard, you're riding with me."

"What? Where are we going?" She shouted over the helicopter noise.

"Doing something we should've done the moment we lost Thunder Lizard 1." He replied and signaled the chopper to take off. "Ian Fleming put it this way! Once is happenstance, twist is coincidence. Three times…is enemy action!"

XXXXXX

Grimlock struggled against Sludge and Snarl as they pushed him back with their combined strength. Slag's added push was too much for him and he tumbled back, mowing down a destructive wave through the downtown area. People screamed and struggled to run out off the way, though some weren't as lucky.

"Don't want to fight you," Grimlock grunted as they smashed into a building and completely demolished it. Debris hit his face as he punched Snarl's face to loosen the bit on his hand. "But you leave me no choice!"

He grabbed Slag by the horns and threw him into a motel, knocking over the signpost in a shower of sparks. "You have to remember who you are! What we were!"

Sludge stomped forward and snapped his head at Grimlock, who slammed a fist atop his cranium. "Whatever I've done in the past, no matter how much I am to blame for this mess, we're Dynobots first! We watch each other's back, we stick together through thick and thin, and no one…tells us what to do!"

He lifted Sludge's larger body and heave, slamming him into an oncoming Swoop and knocking him away, and then threw Sludge to the ground. He then saw Slag and the flames leaking from his mouth.

"Slag, don't," Grimlock pleaded as he switched to beast mode. "Focus. Go back to the moment we first met on Cybertron. We were both in the brig, you and me, trying to figure out who gone furthest up the chain of command in terms of who we ticked off and how bad." He slowly edged toward Slag. "You trumped my field commander with vice admiral. You shot him in the back to convince the moron his unit was being outflanked and forward attack was the only options. I knew then that we saw things with the same, simple clarity."

He edged closer still. "Slag, remem-"

Slag fired his stream of flames that caught Grimlock in the chest and sent him into a gas station. As soon as Grimlock noticed he was covered in oil, he groaned. "Frag me-"

The gas station exploded in a might explosion that sent the four Dynobots flying in different directions. Firefighters were immediately on the scene to put the flames out, but the area of the inferno was too great to cover.

"Please tell me we cleared the area!" The fire chief said.

"As far as we can tell, Chief, but you know how these folks are," A fireman said. "Some of 'em would sooner amputate one of their own limbs with a nail file than leave their homes and businesses!"

Just to prove his point, the manager of a family owned diner watched from a window as the world burned around him, trapped in his diner by white hot flames.

XXXXXX

"My, my, who would've thought I'd be having this much fun?" Thornment laughed. "Haven't felt this ecstatic since torching those peons in Simfur."

"Why?"

"Hm?" Thornment turned to Rodimus. "Why what?"

"Why all this? What's your angle in causing so much chaos?" Rodimus asked weakly.

"You honestly wouldn't understand if I told you the unabridged version. And my angle is much more vast than OZ's." She pointed to the screen. "Those Dynobots are being controlled by a secret government organization called Skywatch, and they've been on OZ's radar for quite some time now. As you know, OZ wants to help humanity evolved as a species, and to do that, they need control over Terra. They've been doing it at a steady pace for over a century before we cybertronians arrived.

"You see, Skywatch will be revealed as the instigator of this devastation and rendered defunct due to their inherent incompetence. The headmasters, by that point, will have resorted order to chaos, ending the threat posed by the Dynobots." She went on. "Once everything is said and done, Epsilon Holdings will be given a lucrative government contract to police the skies and defend Terra from extraterrestrial threats. OZ will have greater influence over Terra's future, while the Zodiac supplants the world's nations from within."

"Quiet a mouthful." Rodimus coughed.

"Yes, it's a bit long winded. And I could honestly care less about their goals. Though, I look forward to seeing both Prime and Megatron brought to their knees." Thornment shook her head. "As for me, my goals and OZ's mesh thanks to our divine protectors, our gods."

"Gods?"

"Yes. You don't know what I'm talking about, but I'm sure Prime does. He's encountered many of them in the past year." She smirked. "And soon, our gods will show both humanity and the cybertronians the path to true enlightenment."

"Sir," One of the humans said. "The Trident Battalion is on final approach."

"Tell them to hold position and await my command. I find myself intrigued." Thornment thought back to Grimlock's words. What happened between them? "Raise the awareness threshold by fifty percent. Let them access their memory cache. Something tells me the simmering animosity we've toiled so hard to include artificially has been there the whole time!"

XXXXXX

"Someone, help! I'm cookin' alive in my own diner!"

Grimlock's keen audials heard a man's weak cries for help in the heart of the inferno, and he saw the man in the window, trapped by the flames.

"Hmph," Grimlock reverted to robot mode and waded through the flames toward the trapped human. "Dumb animals."

Grimlock! What did you do?!"

A flaming sword slashed across his back, staggering Grimlock. He caught himself and face his now transformed team-who looked very, very unhappy with him.

"To us? Your fellow Dynobots?" Slag growled, pointing his sword at Grimlock's face.

"So you remember." Grimlock said, inwardly relieved but knowing their pissing contest would continue if he didn't explain quickly. "I made sure we won, at any cost. We came to this planet looking for payback. That Seeker had it coming, big time! Only…it didn't work that way. We were all beaten, at his mercy, but I pre-set a barrage from the Grimstone's main weapons array on an unstable reservoir of magma. Any one of you would do the same thing."

"Except we would have been up front about it. You did it behind our backs, took the decision out of our hands." Slag said. "The instant you did that, we stopped being a team."

Grimlock snorted condescendingly. "Funny."

"What is?" Swoop asked.

"To hear that from you, Slag. You fought so hard to stress, time and time again, that's exactly what we're not-a team." Grimlock walked over to the diner and leaned down. "You said we put the "un" into "unit". You said, when we first formed the idea about the Dynobots, you said there's only one rule…there are no rules. What I did was completely, utterly us."

Grimlock heaved and lifted the entire diner over his head, lifting the man inside from harm and marched past his team. "Now if you'll excuse me, I feel curiously obligated to put this puny lifeform out of harm's way."

At the underground command center, Thornment shrugged. "Huh, oh well. You win some, you lose some. Send in the headmasters!"

Outside Fallon, a squad of two dozen red colored Sunstreaker headmasters approached the Skywatch barricade placed on the roads near Fallon's city limits. The soldiers posted there tried to stop them, but grew nervous as the cars didn't heed their warnings to slow down.

"Hey! Stop or we'll-"

The lead car fired two rockets, blasting apart the barricade and driving down the road, ignoring the soldiers shooting at them as they drove straight toward Fallon. They were the first of many teams that would converge on the Dynobots.

XXXXXX

"I'm not even going to ask if this is a good idea, because we both know the answer." Veronica said stiffly as they walked into one of their holding facilities in the state of Wyoming.

"Good, because I didn't ask you." Red said.

"This is only going to make things worse, don't you see that?" She hissed.

"We have no choice. Our control over the Thunder Lizards has been lost thanks to an outside party screwing around with your programs." He said and glared at her. "You had your chance, now I have mine. We have to send in someone who isn't on the grid."

Veronica stopped short as Red crossed the catwalk to stand before the massive black and blue mech restrained from head to toe in adamantium bolts and cuffs.

"It's high time you and I had a talk," Agent Red said, staring into the featureless face of the ancient Seeker. "Sprawl."


	40. Maximum Dinobots part 2

Chapter 40-Maximum Dinobots part 2

Agent Joshua Red studied the Decepticon Seeker known as Sprawl as they released him from his restraints. He was almost as tall as Grimlock, with a razor thin white optic visor, and matching white highlights on his black and chrome armor plating. Each step he took rattled the chamber as he stepped forward, rolling his wide shoulders while looking up at the humans in the bullet and bomb proof observation deck above him. He had no mouth, but Red could tell he was smirking at them.

Sprawl was found alongside the Dynobots, also in stasis. They based the neural inhibitor web off the cognitive restraints they implanted into Sprawl upon his awakening. He was kept in his containment facility, perplexed but amused at the humans who thought they had him contained. His nonchalant attitude towards the situation grated on Red's nerves. It was like a giant looking down on ants.

"Do you understand what's been done to you, Sprawl?" He asked through the intercom.

"Of course. You have interspliced a powerful explosive charge within my neural mass, designed to detonate after twenty four of your time-units (hours) have elapsed unless a reset code, known only to you is transmitted." Sprawl said in a smooth, cool tone. "You do this because your previous attempts to leash my kind have been met with dismal, repeated and unsurprising failure. And you wish me to clean up your mess."

"Exactly." Red said, fighting down his growing irritation. "You have the first twenty four window to locate and neutralize Seekers 1 and 2 and Thunder Lizards 1 to 5."

Sprawl chuckled as the roof slid apart to allow him clearance to take off. "Ravage, Laserbeak, Grimlock, Snarl, Swoop, Sludge and Slag. My old friends." He hummed. "Twenty four hours. Agent Red, do you have any conception of how much damage I could do to your tiny little world in that time?"

Leaving them with that ominous warning, Sprawl stepped outside and transformed. His parts reorganized at an agonizingly slow pace due to not having transformed in so long, but soon a large cybertronian jet was in his place, shooting into the sky and vanishing into the horizon.

"Why do I feel like we aren't seeing him again after this?" Rebecca asked.

"You don't think…" One of the scientists gulped. "He wouldn't. Not with that bomb in his head. Would he?"

"I don't know. Let's ask Agent Red," Rebecca glared at Red's face. "He set the hellhound loose after all."

Red gritted his teeth and glared back at Howard. "Agent Howards, I have had enough of your-"

" _Skywatch central, this is tact unit Bcrux. We are under attack!"_

"What?!" Both agents exclaimed.

XXXXXX

Multiple vehicular assailants," The soldier grunted as a group of red cars armed to the teeth blasted their way through the barricade explosively. "We can't stop them!"

The armored convoys were blasted to oblivion by the headmaster units as they drove into Fallon, five battalions in all. From her post in OZ central, it was all glorious to Thornment, who watched the show with sadistic glee.

"Sir, just in from our on-site observers," Drake reported. "All headmaster battalions have penetrated Fallon city limits."

"Excellent. Converge on Grid T-lateral 6. Have them target Grimlock alone." She ordered. "I'm interested to see just how willing the others will leap to his defense."

"Done."

"That said however it goes…no one makes it out alive."

XXXXXX

"We have to get off this planet." Grimlock said to his team. "The Grimstone is intact, but badly damaged. In need of repairs and expertise I don't have. At least, not yet." He glanced at the demolished town and sighed. "Until then, we need to lay low and hide. The humans will be back with bigger weapons and Thornment, well…she's not done with us yet."

When Grimlock didn't hear any replies, he looked back at his team, who just stood there glaring at him. "Why are you all standing there? What's wrong?" He didn't like the silent treatment they were giving him. "Talk to me."

"Time was Grimlock, you talked and we listened," Swoop said. "But that's changed. Everything's different. New world, new rules."

"It's us, Swoop, against the world." Grimlock said. "As always!"

"No. I can't speak for the others, but I can't forgive what you did-however much it might be in keeping with the general archaic ethos of being a Dynobot." Swoop shook his head. "I…I'm not someone who plays well with others. Trust comes hard for me. And yet, you pulled me in…made me a part of something I could believe in. and then on a whim, you blew it all apart."

Grimlock winced and lowered his gaze.

"It was just a game for you, wasn't it? Win at all costs. Any cost. The rest of us were just a means to an end. Say we get off this planet. What then? Can you honestly tell me there's one single solitary ridge that hasn't been burned?"

Grimlock couldn't say anything to that. And neither could the other Dynobots who were silently watching the tense exchange. They had pushed almost everyone away during the War for Cybertron, and now they we're back to where they began. Outcasts among comrades.

"Yeah, I thought so." Swoop scowled and went into his beast mode. "I'm better off alone."

He took off, ignoring Grimlock's yells for him to come back. "Swoop, wait! Don't…"

Grimlock reached after Swoop's airborne form as if it would keep him from leaving. He looked back and saw the other Dynobots turn their backs on him as well, walking away. "We're a team." He said weakly. Clenching his fists, Grimlock growled. "Fine. Frag you all. I don't need you. I never needed you. From now on, it's all about me! Grim-"

Three rockets hit his chest and he staggered back from the powerful blows. Grimlock looked up and saw the headmasters driving at him down the street.

"Back for more?" He growled.

"Back to finish what we started." A headmaster replied as he transformed alongside the other headmasters.

"Good. I'm in the mood to eviscerate en masse!" Grimlock leapt at them and transformed to beast mode mid-lunge, slamming headfirst into the headmasters and snapping at them. All the while Slag, Sludge and Snarl watched from the sidelines, conflicted.

XXXXXX

So, your headmasters save the day, Skywatch is exposed and discredited, and Epsilon Holdings picks up the government contract to police the skies." Rodimus huffed, wincing as his loose jaw creaked painfully. "Seems rather…mundane."

"The hostile takeover is merely the beginning, Rodimus. As we speak, the Zodiac are prepping for a simultaneous invasion of the Ark and Nemesis in just a few short hours." Thornment revealed.

"W-what?!" Rodimus straightened up.

"Heh, that caught you attention, didn't it? Yes, there are two fully armed headmaster armies ready to wipe out both your friends and enemies in one fell swoop." She said. "If our race is to truly grow and evolve, we must cut away the dead flesh keeping the new cells from taking its place. We will only be allowed true paradise when the ones responsible for starting the war that killed our planet are killed. Once Optimus Prime and Megatron are dealt with, the rest of their factions will fall."

"You're insane! There's no way you can take on both of them!"

"You'd be surprised what we can do thanks to our gods." Thornment chuckled. "You should be proud, Rodimus. You'll be the sole survivor of the Terra wars. Just like the sacking of Nyon. And that's what you'll always be…a survivor like me."

XXXXXX

Grimlock grunted in pain as multiple heat beams tore into his thick hide and swung the bulk of his body around, smacking them away with his tail. Another volley of beams hit his face and right leg, forcing him back. Too many…at this rate, he'll lose a limb before their numbers could be thinned down.

But then the wall of headmasters was shattered as Sludge barreled into them, swinging his long neck like a battering ram.

"Sludge?"

"Seriously, did you think we'd just stand there and let you-whatever you are-take out the Big G?" sludge said, throwing the mechs every which-way.

"All you've done is remind us," Snarl said as he tore off an arm and crushed another unit's leg. "Is that deep down…"

Slag incinerated two more headmasters with his fire breath. "For better or worse…"

"We're Dynobots!" Swoop dived in from the sky like a bird of prey, firing his wing-mounted laser cannons.

"Swoop!" Grimlock exclaimed, sounding genuinely happy. "You came back."

Swoop transformed and shrugged. "Well where would I go? Just…just understand, whatever happens next will be on my terms."

Grimlock nodded. "Loud and clear."

"Uh," Snarl backed away as another flood of headmasters drove down the intersection. Two more battalions of headmasters surrounded the Dynobots. Shifting to their robot modes, they all pointed their weapons at the team, who didn't feel so confident anymore. "I think I can guess what happens next."

"All units," Thornment said coldly. "Execute them."

XXXXXX

"We're getting close." Darren said. "I did some snooping on the web and found some more sites to check out. Three in total. Two production plants and the company's HQ."

"Which one's the closest?"

"They all are about an equal distance from our location, but we can't check them out all at once."

"We'll have to. I can't risk missing my head on the first try." Sunstreaker said.

Darren frowned and wrenched control of the vehicle from Sunstreaker, driving off the road and onto a dirt path near a harbor.

"Darren? What are you doing?"

"Calm down, Sunny, no need to shout. We share the same head." Darren said. "You're all fired up, I get that, you want your real head back-but we can't just roll in there and start shooting things. So I'm calling a time out."

They transformed to robot mode and the transector detached his head, placing it on the ground. Darren switched from his head form, standing up and stretching his sore limbs. Staying connected to the transector for long periods of time wasn't as taxing on his body as it should be thanks to the implants, but it was still a bit uncomfortable for someone who hasn't trained for it like he has.

"Sorry, Sunstreaker, but this situation calls for a level head, and right now, I am it." Darren felt the Autobot's faint protests in the back of his mind, but ignored it. "Don't give me that, I'm not running into a battle we can't win. We barely escaped from Thornment last time, and I am not going to repeat that mess of an encounter."

He sat on the ground and took a deep breath. They were close now, and were on the verge of running headfirst into danger without support or backup. Darren was so used to fighting in a talos alongside his friends that being alone was…scary. He would have to fight an army of headmasters and the Zodiac all by himself, Sunstreaker's consciousness notwithstanding.

"Okay, Darren," He told himself. "Time to see if you have the chops for this."

Standing up, he closed his eyes and held up his hand, focusing on calling Excalibur to him. He never had to call his sword to him, not in the way Annie called upon Mjolnir on a whim. She described it as forming a mental image of the hammer flying into her hand, like an impulse and less like a command. It worked at short distances, but Excalibur was halfway across the country. Would it even work?

'No, I can't start having doubts now.' Darren shook his head. 'Not this far in the fight. I have to at least try.'

He focused hard on his sword, visualizing it moving to him, willing it to heed his call. He never had to telekinetically pull things from such great distances, especially not things he couldn't see. But then he felt a strange tingle in his arm, an electric jolt warm across his skin.

'That's right, recognize one of your knights.' Darren thought. 'Come to me, Excalibur. Help me in this dark hour. Give me strength, just like you did King Arthur.'

His arm was shaking right now, and he had a dull hum in his ears. The hum grew in intensity in his head until it gave way to a crackling jolt in the back of his neck. Opening his eyes, he looked up and saw a shape heading his way. A tiny pointy object flying through the air faster than a bullet.

"Oh my god, it actually worked!" Darren grinned.

Excalibur, the legendary sword forged by nonhuman hands and bestowed to a mighty king, fell from the sky as if delivered from the heavens. Darren didn't flinch as the sword stabbed itself into the ground in front of him.

"Hello, friend." Darren smiled, grasping its hilt and holding it aloft. Despite its size and weight, it felt light and perfect in his hands, while it normally would've been heavy in the hands of a child his age.

He swung Excalibur a few times before holding the blade in his hand. "You're all I need in this situation. So please, lend me your power to help me protect my friends and family."

Excalibur vibrated in his hands, giving a small hum as if to show its support of him. Darren smiled.

"Thank you."

XXXXXX

"DYNOBOTS CHAAAARRGE!"

Grimlock's war cry spurred the battle into action. The headmasters fired their cannons from all directions, but the Dynobots tore through their ranks like a battle hardened bulldozer with teeth and flames. The Dynobots went full melee on them and ripped through the headmasters with teeth, claws and blades, killing dozens in just a few minutes. Stray heat blasts and missiles caused more damage to the already ravaged town. At this point, Fallon was little more than a burning ruin in its death throes. Pretty much the standard sight after a Dynobot battle.

Swoop tried to fly up and deliver an air strike but he wasn't able to get high enough before he was shot through his wing. He hit the ground face first and was almost lit up by some headmasters before Grimlock bisected them all with a single swipe of his sword. He helped Swoop to his feet and the flyer gave a nod of gratitude.

"I was wrong, Grimlock." Swoop said.

Grimlock looked down at him. "Huh?"

"Better to die with warrior brothers than in quiet solitude."

Snarl fell back as he took a volley of missiles to his body, falling to his knees. Slag jumped over him and took out his attacks with a flaming sword strike, only for more to push him back. Sludge pulled both mechs back and swung his war hammer, bashing away large swaths of enemies with each swing.

Grimlock saw that everyone was exhausted. Their earlier battle against each other had drained much of their already low power levels, and they were starting to slow down as the overcharge of battle wore off. At this point, they were going to be overrun.

Dying at the hands of pale imitations of an annoying Autobot whose death he'd often fantasize about from some stupid organization on a planet far from home wasn't exactly how Grimlock planned his demise, but then again, he always considered himself untouchable. Just the thought of dying like this only fueled him more.

His only solace was that he got his team back. He wasn't alone anymore.

"I pulled us together for all the wrong reasons." Grimlock said as the headmasters began to swarm on top of them. "But at least we're together…one last time!"

At this point, the headmasters were piling on top of them and the Dynobots were obscured from view. By rights, the endless waves of enemies would've worn them down within the hour…had a particle beam not scattered the clones.

"Wha-" Slag looked up and saw a ground bridge appear in the street.

"Grimlock, what is that?" Swoop asked.

"Our reinforcements." Grimlock answered.

Arcee, Moonracer and Athena jumped out of the portal and laid waste to the headmasters. Moonracer fired explosive rounds from a rooftop to scatter the soldiers, while Arcee sprinted forward and began cutting them down with her swords. Gina laid down heavy fire with her sol missiles and fired her beam cannon to kill dozens at a time.

"Arcee Moonracer and…whatever the hell that thing is." Sludge grumbled. "What are they doing here?"

"The world just opened its doors to Megatron, and Prime is right behind him. So I called in a little extra assistance." Grimlock's faceplate retracted, showing his gruesome maw full of white teeth upturned in a grin. "Now are we going to let a bunch of girls show s up? Let's show Prime's people how it's really done!"

Grimlock charged back into the fray with renewed vigor. His Dynobots watched it all with shocked expressions. Swoop shrugged.

"And somehow, after all that's happened, we still do."

With that, the other Dynobots followed their leader and continued the massacre. This sudden turn in the battle was too much for the headmasters, who were unable to combat the combined might of the Autobots and Dynobots. Gina's beam cannon weren't helping matters either.

"T-they're not paying me enough for this!" A headmaster cried, not wanting to get torn apart.

"Hell no!"

"R-right! I signed up for a turkey shoot!" Another soldier whimpered.

All things considered, it was nice to see who was truly loyal to the OZ cause, as the die-hards stayed behind to get slaughtered, while those less courageous sped away as fast as their wheels could take them.

XXXXXX

Thornment was silently fuming at the scene. The Dynobots were mere seconds away from certain death, and suddenly her victory gets snatched away from her. She was a hair's breath away from smashing someone's head, and Rodimus's laugh wasn't helping her sour mood.

"Haha! The best laid plans, eh, Thornment?" Rodimus cackled. "Those Dynobots. Last group in all creation anyone'd hang a strategy on! Except you apparently! Ha! Life's a glitch, ain't it?"

"You two, take him out," Thornment growled. She didn't dare turn around lest she lose any semblance of control and go into a burning rage. "And have him shot."

"Maybe you should take some notes from Grimlock, you stupid genius!" Rodimus laughed as the headmasters dragged him out.

"He's lost it." One of the guards said as they dragged Rodimus out back.

"After the beating the boss meted out, are you surprised?" His partner said. "This'll be a mercy killing."

As they entered the elevator lift, the headmaster noticed something odd as Rodimus's cackles died down. The small space was getting warmer by the second.

"Is it me or is it getting hot in here?" He asked.

Rodimus lifted his head, smirking with his broken face. "Ha."

The two headmasters didn't know what happened as both were incinerated by Rodimus's flames as he went up like a supernova.

XXXXXX

"So Thornment failed to kill the Dynobots. Surprise, surprise." Scorpio said sarcastically.

"Hush now, Scorpio. Thankfully, Thornment was kind enough to refrain from using too many of our reserve forces." Aries glanced at the monitor in the control center. "And this trial run of the headmaster army, failure aside, has went swimmingly in my opinion."

"So says you." Scorpio replied.

Aries glared at him before looking back to Pisces and Aquarius on the communication monitors, both clad in their bodysuits. "Are your divisions prepped and ready?"

"We're nearing the Ark's position, Aries." Pisces said. "I've already sent Vipers on site to confirm visual."

"Same here. The Nemesis is on an island in the Pacific Ocean." Aquarius said and smirked. "Both air and ground units are combat ready."

"Good. Once you're within range of your targets, wait for my signal to begin." Aries said. "Today, both Autobots and Decepticons will fall before the next sunrise."


	41. The Divine Comedy-Inferno

Chapter 41-The Divine Comedy-Inferno

The Decepticon Sprawl flew over the state of Ozark, high enough that the humans couldn't see him in his still cybertronian form, and his jet engines were almost as silent as a gust of wind thanks to his hybrid engine. Skywatch had been kind enough to keep his flight path clear of any local airlines, but Sprawl made it clear that'd he have no problem killing people on their watch if they got in his way. What better way to piss off his captors by showing that all the deaths were because they set him lose on the world.

This was such an odd world to wake up to, and these humans were certainly resourceful, if nothing else. He wasn't insulted by their audacity, like most Decepticons would be. It tickled him at the lengths these creatures would go to appear strong in front of his kind, despite after such embarrassing, repeated failures in controlling what could've been their game changer for their organization. Sprawl would only listen to them for now, but once he got his trump card, he was going to make them regret ever hearing his name.

"Hm?" Sprawl was taken out of his thoughts by his sensors alerting him to three cybertronian life signatures. They were identified as Decepticons, but one of them was barely detectable.

It didn't take him long to discern their identities and what he discovered would've made him smile if he had a mouth.

"Hello, Soundwave."

XXXXXX

When Brad Jones heard about giant roots that could turn into dinosaurs tearing apart Fallon, he was totally hype about it. Were they some super advanced form of talos, or were they alien machines? Either though was cool, and that's all that mattered. He just wished the news coverage hadn't cut out before the brawl really got started.

Brad would get his wish granted, as a hole was punched through his wall from the outside and a large robot panther (or jaguar) poke its head into his room, red eyes glaring at him.

"Human! Y-you have…" Ravage grunted out in broken sentences. "Something w-we want."

Brad could only gap at the giant talking robot kitty. "Oh my god."

Ravage, who was doing his best to think straight with the neural implants subverting his brainwaves, scanned the boy's room and saw Soundwave's cassette form sitting inside the bookshelf like some common disposable human device. Ravage growled and called on Laserbeak.

"L-Laserbeak," He rasped. "App-ropiate!"

"Laserbeak jumped off his perch and flew toward the house. He fired his laser cannons at the roof, destroying it and allowing him to swoop down and snatch his master, forcing Brad to take cover from the raining debris. Ravage also transformed into his own cassette mode and Laserbeak snatched him up in his beak before flying off.

"Wow." Brad could only say, ignoring the calls of his panicked mother.

XXXXXX

Soundwave was glad his gamble paid off, as he was still struggling to remain online. If he passed out again, the neural inhibitors in Ravage and Laserbeak would take over, and he wasn't going to let those pitiful humans use his subordinates as their bloodhounds.

Laserbeak had flown as far as the mountains outside of town before landing on the ridge of a dead volcano. Ravage transformed and padded over to Soundwave, his movements jerky and uncoordinated.

"Y-you are…free. But," Ravage growled and shook his head. "Now-what?"

"That, Ravage…I do not know." Soundwave said through his alt mode's speakers. "My last…reserves of power…almost gone. Still trapped in shunt form…can barely keep blocking…signal to your implants. We-"

"Need a specialist." Sprawl lumbered out of the cave, his white visor glowing like a furnace. "Especially as, I'd postulate, it was a weapon of Shockwave's design that consigned you to this sorry state."

"Sp-Sprawl?" Soundwave sounded as shocked as he felt at the sudden appearance of this Seeker, which was a rare feat. Ravage and Laserbeak moved to defend their master. "Is that you?"

"It is." Sprawl said. "Order Ravage and Laserbeak to stand down. I have no wish to hurt them…or you. In fact, Soundwave, I believe we can help each other."

The humans should've never taken their eyes off him when they let him loose.

XXXXXX

"So you have a magic sword that you inherited from some dead king back in Britannia and no one asked you about it?" Sunstreaker asked as he and Darren drove towards the most likely place where his real head was being held. "And you used it to kill Skyquake? How come you humans haven't used these weapons before?"

"In case you forgot that explanation Prime gave you, these weapons are thousands of years old, and they're seen as myths by the majority of the world." Darren sighed. "My Excalibur, Annie's Mjolnir, Nightshade's bow, they were all used at some point by historical figures in the past. We've been using them for so long now, and yet we barely know who made them or how they really work." He shrugged. "There are still so many things we don't know about this world, and it's getting to the point that not knowing enough is hazardous to our health."

"And you think that magic toothpick is gonna help us fight the bad guys?"

"This magic toothpick beheaded Skyquake, and I wouldn't exactly call this a game changer." Darren looked down at Excalibur sitting in the back seat. "Aries has the same type of sword as mine, Clarent, and it's the sword that killed the original owner of Excalibur."

"That's not troubling at all." Sunstreaker remarked.

"He used it to take you out and he'll use it again if we don't have proper protection." Darren said.

Sunstreaker couldn't forget the energy wave Aries used on him. One strike was all it took to take him out, and knowing that some backwater organic with a fancy sword defeated him so easily was a blow to his pride. He wanted a go at that bastard, and make him wish he was never born.

"Reign it in, Sunny. You're going over the speed limit." Darren said, catching wind of Sunstreaker's murderous thoughts.

"Sorry."

"One thing at a time. First, we need to find out where the hell to go. Then-"

The road in front of them exploded and Sunstreaker swerved to the side, nearly tipping over to avoid falling into the smoking crater. Another missile nearly hit him, but he transformed and shifted his arm into his heat cannon.

"Who the hell's shooting me now?!" Sunstreaker yelled.

He got his answer as three talos came zooming down the street on four treads. Darren recognized them as Buque's, wolf-like talos with blue armor and treads on the backs of their legs. They were a type of talos used by the north Libyan mobile armor forces that were equipped for combat in arid, desert areas. There were three pursuing them, two with twin rail-guns and the third with a multi-missile launcher. Darren wondered what Libyan talos were doing this deep in Delpoi when they started shooting at them with machine guns!

"It's obvious, Darren. These yahoos are with OZ, and they want us silenced!" Sunstreaker growled. "I thought OZ thought better of me to send more than three grunts to take us out!"

"Who said we were grunts?" The lead Buque said. The cockpit hatch on its back opened, and a small figure climbed out to face Darren. In Sunstreaker's mind, he heard Darren gasp.

"A Minicon?" Sunstreaker exclaimed.

"Yes, Autobot, a Minicon." Dualor said, his voice leaking immense amounts of hatred. "And thanks to our new friends, we've been given a chance to vent our aggression on you!"

"Oh scrap." Sunstreaker scowled.

"Destruction team," Dualor snarled. "Kill the Autobot and his human proxy!"

XXXXXX

It wasn't even noon yet and the Ark was already bustling with activity. Ratchet and Lifeline had spent the entire morning removing the neural implants from the Dynobots. It wasn't a difficult task as the implants were rather primitive in design and were completely burnt out after Thornment screwed around with them, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

Once his operation was done, Grimlock spoke had a wonderfully long talk with Optimus, Prowl and the newly revived Ironhide about the situation so far. Once explanations were exchanged, Ironhide couldn't help but laugh at the irony.

"Only the infamous Dynobots could somehow escape fighting the war for four million years." Ironhide chuckled. "Damn shame for a team that likes to be in the thick of the action."

"At least you weren't turned into a human science experiment." Grimlock said bitterly.

"And to think, all this time we thought your team had defected and gone rogue, only to learn that you got stuck in stasis lock on a prehistoric planet because you couldn't leave well enough alone." Prowl said, crossing his arms. "You and Sprawl, locking in combat."

"And it appears Sprawl was working on behalf of Shockwave in secret." Optimus said.

"That about sums it up. I never once put any thought into this planet's stratospherically high energon count, and now it's come back to bite me in the aft."

"That doesn't excuse you from going against orders, Grimlock." Optimus said. "You've brushed off my warnings enough and now it's almost cost you your team."

"I know. Never knew how much they mattered until I almost lost them." Grimlock shook his head and looked at Prime. "Please tell me you know where those fragging humans are. They almost took my team away and made them into Thornment's playthings!"

I'm sorry, Grimlock, but we're in the dark as much as you are. Two of our own were taken by OZ and we still have yet to find a solid lead to their whereabouts." Prime sighed. "It doesn't help that you don't remember where you awakened."

"And you don't need another adventure after you and your team leveled an entire town!" Prowl exclaimed. "You stood in full view of humans and exposed us. Now, as if we didn't have enough problems, we might have to deal with the Osean military coming down on us!"

"I got jumped by those headmasters and they teleported me into the middle of a town. Don't take this out on me, you frag-head!" Grimlock hissed.

"Calm down, both of you. This isn't going to solve anything." Optimus said. He placed a hand on Prowl's shoulder. "Prowl, we may be in a difficult position right now, but we must deal with one problem at a time. OZ takes top priority right now."

Prowl exhaled and nodded. "Understood, Prime."

"Grimlock, you and your team are welcome to stay here and recover." Optimus said. "But I'd advise you to watch your step."

Grimlock grumbled a bit, not wanting to sit around while Thornment was still functioning, but he also knew that fighting on near empty energy levels was borderline suicidal. "Fine. I'll stay."

Outside the room, the children and some of the Minicons were marveling at the Dynobots. Annie let out a low whistle.

"Giant robots that change into robot dinosaurs. Now I've seen everything." Annie said. "And they were right on our interstellar doorstep the whole time."

"Small universe." High Wire said.

"I've heard stories about these guys, but I'm so hype to see them in person." Roadstorm said, taking snapshots with his camera. "Damn, Grimlock really is taller than Prime! Hell, he might even be taller than bucket head!"

"I heard from my neighbor on Solomus that Grimlock's the only mech who can piss Optimus off with words alone." Grindor whispered. "Even Megatron has to try hard to do that."

"Are they really that famous?" Gina asked.

"More infamous than anything." Sparkplug said. "The Dynobots are like the Wreckers if they had gone off the rails. You can count in the hundreds how many times Grimlock deployed his team without permission. Hard to believe that they were stuck on Terra for so many years."

Gina crossed her arms. "Well, Terra has upgraded itself to cosmic pit stop in our corner of the galaxy. I'm not surprised anymore."

Sureshock noted the tenseness in Gina's muscles. "Gina?"

"I thought for sure that the Dynobots might have a lead on Darren's location, but nothing." Gina rubbed her eyes. "Three weeks and nothing to show for it. Damn it, I can't take this anymore!"

Annie wrapped her arm around Gina's shoulders and pulled her close. "I'm sorry, Gina. Maybe Sara can find something out."

"Maybe." Gina didn't sound so confident anymore. It felt like each passing day took Darren farther and farther away from them. From her.

XXXXXX

"Scrap!" Sunstreaker rolled down a hill as Drill Bit fired off two wire-guided missiles from his unit's missile launcher.

"Come on! How hard is it to shoot a human-made tin can?" Bonesaw yelled at his partner.

"Up yours, Bonesaw! I'd like to see you do better." Drill Bit growled.

"Both of you shut up and kill him!" Dualor shouted.

Sunstreaker cursed his bad luck, which he blamed on Darren. The human supplied him memories of the mission to the moon, where Sparkplug led a revolt against the Minicon dictatorship of the Destruction Team. They lost sight of both that team and their other combiner, Heavy Metal in the combined Autobot/Decepticon assault on the base. Apparently, OZ recruited them as "consultants."

Sunstreaker was a fast fighter, but the Buques were also highly mobile and packed heavy artillery. Drill Bit's unit had a 13 tube 40mm missile pod that had enough firepower to take out a tank, and Dualor and Bonesaw's units were equipped with 2-barrel 450mm rail-guns. They gave Sunstreaker no time to get his bearings, swarming him in the Buque's tank mode and driving him off the road onto a grassy field. Sunstreaker tried to shook at them, but he only managed to nick Dualor's unit in the leg before Drill Bit fired two more missiles at him.

'Come on, Darren, if you have any ideas, don't be a stranger!' He thought.

"What's the matter, Autobot? Not used to being chased around like an animal?" Bonesaw taunted.

"How's it feel?" Dualor joined in, firing his rail-gun at Sunstreaker's feet. "That's what we Minicons had to go through because of you!"

"Cry me a river!" Sunstreaker yelled back. Taking a gamble, he charged at Drill Bit, firing a heat blast at its head, destroying the camera in one blast.

"What? No!" Drill Bit panicked as he lost his main camera and was driving blind. He jumped as he felt his machine shudder before moving off the ground.

Sunstreaker gritted his teeth as he lifted the blind Buque off its treads over his head in an amazing feat of strength. Dualor and Bonesaw circled around him to get a good shot.

"Let go of him!" Bonesaw pulled the trigger and fired a shot at Sunstreaker.

"Bonesaw, wait!" Dualor yelled, but his warning came too late.

The altered Buques were equipped with a Mars Industries rail-gun that fired electrically charged projectiles, mainly tungsten rods, at accelerated speeds akin to a giant gun. As a weapon designed to do maximum damage to heavily armed units, it would've blown a hole clean through Sunstreaker…had it hit its mark. Instead, Sunstreaker held Drill Bit's unit in front of him as a shield and the rod pierced the Buque in its underside, impaling the cockpit from underneath and ripping into Drill Bit. The Minicon was killed when Sunstreaker threw his talos away and it exploded, knocking the Autobot back.

"You freak!" Dualor roared, aiming his guns at Sunstreaker. "I'll tear you two apart!"

"D-Dualor, help!"

"What?" Dualor spun his unit around to see Bonesaw's Buque being boarded by a light pink figure. She jammed a staff into its armor, and to his surprise, the Buque shuddered and felt forward, its head digging into the ground. "Drill Bit?"

"Gak!" He heard Drill Bit's pleas for help as his assailant tore open the cockpit hatch and the sound of blaster fire. Then he heard his cries no more.

"Drill Bit? Drill Bit, answer me!" Dualor yelled. He was jostled in his seat as explosions racked his unit's legs and shifted his camera downward. Three miniature military vehicles were swerving in and out of his legs, firing artillery guns and laser cannons at him. "No, no, no!"

"Take him out, team!" Crack of the Military Team hollered as he fired his twin cannons into one of the Buque's back legs. It's joints exploded into molten metal and the machine toppled over to the side. "Shot, drop it!"

"With pleasure!" Shot rolled up to the Buque and fired his missile payload, taking out its front legs as well.

"Frag!" Dualor cursed as his unit hit the ground hard. Grabbing his path blaster, he popped open the emergency hatch and moved to jump out, only to be greeted by the barrel of a gun in his face.

"Hello, Dualor," Night Scream said coldly, his dark gray armor glinting in the sunlight. "It's not so nice to see you."

A few minutes later, Dualor was put on his knees at gunpoint with the Land Military team standing over him. Sunstreaker walked over to them and detached his head, placing it on the ground next to Mugen and Night Scream, so Darren could change to his bipedal form.

"Hey, Darren." Mugen smiled. "Always in the nick of time, eh?"

"Yeah, I owe you guys." Darren said. "How did you find me?"

"Aside from the ravaged highway and the explosions, we ran into those headmaster things searching for energon." Night Scream said. "Mugen and I were suspicious about something and decided raid on of teir facilities here."

"We learned about their army and their hunt for you from their radio chatter. Aries had been sending out patrol nits to flush you out." Mugen said.

"Considering we caused him millions of dollars in damages looking for his ass, I'd be mad at myself, too." Darren smirked. He glanced over at Dualor. "What do we do about him?"

"We do what we can to learn about the enemy." Mugen's expression turned cold as she marched over to Dualor, who sneered at her.

"So after everything you've done, you throw in your lot with the Autobots. You filthy race trait-" Mugen punched him in the face.

"We're all the same race, you good for nothing lump of metal. Now, tell us where they're keeping the headmaster control hub. We know it's in their main headquarters."

"I'll tell you nothing." He growled.

Mugen looked at Darren, who gave her a nod. She turned to the LM team. "Looks like it'll be the hard way."

With a snap of her fingers, Crack pointed his blaster at Dualor's shoulder and fired a bolt into his joint connection. Darren winced but did not look away. This had to be done. For his family, friends and the whole world.

XXXXXX

Rodimus grunted as he sat on his back, trying to work as quietly as possible without making too much noise. His chest plate was open, revealing his inner circuitry and laser core. He managed to crawl as far as the outer gate before hiding from the headmaster and Zygart patrols.

He had come up with a crazy plan that might literally get him killed if he did it wrong. With his comm disabled, he couldn't contact the other Autobots for help, so he had to connect the cables from his comm system to his laser core, using its energies to supercharge it long enough for him to get a message out. Considering he was tampering with his core, there was a good chance he could either cause it to burn out from meltdown or fry his neural pathways to a crisp.

'I don't have a choice.' Rodimus thought. 'Thornment shut down my comm unit, so I have to make due.'

Plugging the last cable into his chest, Rodimus took a deep breath and got ready for the pain. "Tomahawk is gonna kill me!"

He turned his comm on and rerouted his power lines into his comm system. The surge only lasted a millisecond before he felt his body seized with intense pain, greater than anything he ever felt before. He gnashed his teeth together to keep himself from screaming. It was like every circuit membrane in his body was on fire or doused in acid.

'Come on, Rodimus. Pull it together!' Rodimus gritted his teeth and sent his message. "T-this is Rodimus, c-calling for assistance at m-my location! I-is anyone receiving me?"

Rodimus managed to get his message out before the power surge forced his systems to shut down and he passed out into stasis lock.

XXXXXX

"Huh?"

Darren looked over to Mugen who tilted her head as if hearing something. "What's wrong?"

"Hush, I'm getting a transmission." She said, trying to decode the shaky signal. "It's…a distress signal!"

The others crowded around her. "Who is it from?" Night Scream asked.

"An Autobot…Rodimus." She replied. "He says he's at the OZ base!"

"God," Darren gasped. For the first time since getting Excalibur back, he started to feel some hope. "Can you track the signal?"

"I can, but we better get a move on. The signal's weak." Night Scream said.

Darren nodded and returned to his master form, letting the transector pick him up to place its head back on its shoulders. Mugen grimaced at the unsettling perversion of natural headmaster biology, but tried not to let it show.

"I don't think I'll ever get used to see you do that." She said.

"It's no picnic for us either." Sunstreaker said and collapsed into his vehicle mode. "Let's go before the sun sets. I don't want to waste another moment."

This came from both Sunstreaker and Darren, who were determined to end this nightmare once and for all. It was time for some much needed payback.

XXXXXX

"Optimus!" Tomahawk ran into the command center, nearly knocking over Jazz. "Optimus, we've found him!"

"Who, Tomahawk?" Optimus asked.

"Rodimus! We just got an emergency message from him. He says he's at OZ's headquarters!" She exclaimed, looking more excited by the second.

"Prime," Prowl turned to Optimus. "We've just found our window."

Optimus nodded and stood up. "Have you tracked his signal?"

"It was weak, but we pinpointed his location. We can ground bridge to his coordinates immediately." She said. Optimus nodded.

"Then let's assemble the Autobots and prepare for a counterstrike offensive. Sunstreaker and Darren must be held in the seat of the Zodiac's power in this nation."

Tomahawk saluted him. "Understo-"

"Optimus, we got a problem!" Gina and Sparkplug ran between Tomahawk's legs and up to Prime.

"Oh what now?" Jazz groaned.

"Teletran just detected three airborne heat signatures heading our way, and one of them is massive!" Sparkplug announced. "They're airships!"

"And they're multiple signatures appearing a few miles from our position." Gina added. "They're already numbering in the forties and counting!"

The Autobots' Sparks dropped at the news. This was it-OZ was beginning its endgame.

XXXXXX

Megatron, we have a situation." Nightshade called out.

"Hm?" Megatron walked over to the comm-station where Nightshade was standing with Leader-1 and Search. "What is it?"

"Our computers are detecting multiple heat sigs on sonar. They're coming from the ocean." Leader-1 reported.

Megatron's eyes narrowed. "Autobots?"

"No. We're not getting familiar energon readings. These signatures…they're already in the double-digits. And we're also getting a large aircraft approaching us from the south."

Megatron looked at the monitor and saw the large blip on the radar screen slowly getting closer to the island. According to Nightshade, this aircraft was almost the same size as an aircraft carrier. How did they get so close without being detected by now?

"Lord Megatron!" Knockout ran over to the window. "Look!"

Megatron looked outside and failed to hide his surprise as he saw the ocean begin to pull apart in a biblical display. The seas along the shore of Decepticon island from the beach outwards slowly separated to reveal an unsettling sight. Walking along the ocean floor was an army of Barricades!

XXXXXX

Aries stood within his command center with Thornment and Scorpio, ready to give his announcement for the most historical moment in OZ's recent history-the annihilation of the Autobots and Decepticons.

It was a two-part invasion; he and Pisces would lead the headmaster army to attack the Ark from the ground while their new model battleship, a military-style airship created using a fusion of human and cybertronian technology, would assault the Ark if it took off. This ship had enough firepower to level a city block and could potentially combat the Ark if they hit it in the right places.

At Decepticon Island, Aquarius was leading her own invasion with the same model airship to level the island with overwhelming firepower. Her army of Barricade clones will attack from the sea, storming the beach like a tidal wave. Both forces will commit all their resources into combating the cybertronian threat and gaining the advantage they need to rule Terra and humanity!

Now, it was time to give his completely improvised and on the spot speech for the troops.

"My brothers, my sisters, today we stand on the verge of total victory. For nearly a year we've been forced to contend with the cybertronians interfering with our noble crusade to have Terra ascend into a true paradise. All our planning, all our sacrifices, rendered moot thanks to some self-styled conqueror and an idealist with a bleeding heart. But today, that will end. We will show the Autobots, the Decepticons, and any other alien that mankind is under our protection, and OZ will defend its millennium kingdom! Once we eliminate the cybertronian scourge, the rest of the universe will look upon us in awe as we did what they could not!" Aries began.

"Now, all of you know how the operation goes. They may be stronger, but we outnumber them. Storm the Ark and Nemesis and overwhelm them with superior numbers and heavy firepower. Kill all but Prime and Megatron, and seize control of the two starships. Once the Autobots and Decepticons are gone, we will have the means to continue our mission to evolve mankind into a higher state of being. Humanity's fate belongs to OZ, and OZ belongs to the Zodiac! Go forth, and show them that Terra is our world! For Her Majesty!"

"FOR HER MAJESTY!" The other Zodiac chanted, their eyes glowing a luminous amber gold.

In the Pacific Ocean, Aquarius channeled her esper powers over water through her talos into the waters around her. She manipulated the water around Decepticon Island, smirking at the awestruck looks on the Decepticons' faces as the Barricade army charged out of the parted seas and onto the beaches. With a snap of her fingers, Aquarius froze the parted waters in a fantastic display, and hung back to watch the slaughter begin.

In Delpoi the airships were slowly approaching the Ark's resting place, deploying Viper fighter jets to attack the ship in a preliminary assault. The airships themselves were ordered to hang back until the Ark's anti-aircraft guns were taken out. As for Pisces himself, he stood with his headmaster army two miles away, his body tense and crackling with energy. When he heard the first shots fired, he smirked and roared to the heavens.

"RRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!" He exploded in a burst of energy that was like a lightning bolt striking the heart of the forest. From this storm came a massive giant humanoid with skin covered in white armored plates from head to toe. This was the second form of Pisces, the Armored Titan form that his soldiers only heard stories about. With his armor plated eyes staring forward, he charged into the forest, with his army following close behind.

Aries crossed his arms behind his back as he watched his brother and sister commit everything to this momentous occasion. "Bring them to their knees!"


	42. The Divine Comedy-Purgatario

Chapter 42-The Divine Comedy-Purgatario

It would've been an odd sight to see-a yellow muscle car surrounded by a magenta motorcycle, a miniature dark gray sports car and miniature versions of standard military vehicles. One would think that they were remote control vehicles if they weren't the size of a human.

It was sunset now, and the group of fighters had spent almost an hour reaching their destination-Epsilon Holdings' main headquarters. From the outside, it looked like a normal estate belonging to the CEO of a military contractor, but the Autobot and Minicons knew better. This was the seat of power for OZ in Delpoi, and it was probably the most dangerous place in the southwest.

"I can feel it, Darren. My head." Sunstreaker said.

"Me too. This really is the place." Darren said. Despite being a holo-avatar, Darren could still feel his heart pounding. They were in the wolf's den now, and that means they were going to be fighting…killing from here on out.

Night Scream led them to the fence that ran around the perimeter of the massive facility where they pulled to a stop.

"What are we waiting for?" Sunstreaker revved up his engine impatiently. "Let's go!"

"We still need a plan." Mugen said, already annoyed with the Autobot's lack of competency. "We have no idea how to get in without alerting the guards, and as strong as we are, we'll get shot down once they swarm us."

Sunstreaker transformed and detached Darren from his body. The boy took on his humanoid form and walked over to the gate. He ignored Sunstreaker's constant nagging in his head and turned to Mugen.

"What can we do?" He asked.

"For now, scout the area and see an opening we can exploit. Then we move on from there." She said. Then she realized that Night Scream was missing. "Wait, where's-"

"Guys, I found an Autobot!" Night Scream yelled.

"Ugh," Rodimus groaned. He felt so weak and it hurt to move, but somehow, by the grace of Primus, he was alive. His optics flickered back online and the first thing he saw were three Minicons standing over him. "Uh…hey, little guys."

"He's awake!" Crack shouted, making Rodimus wince.

"Not so loud." He groaned. A large shadow fell over him and Rodimus saw a Sunstreaker clone standing over him. "W-what? No!"

"Relax, Rodimus, I'm the real deal," Sunstreaker said. He looked up and shot the two headmasters approaching the hole blown into the wall. "More or less."

"Anyway, thanks, you've given me an opening we were looking for. Find yourself a place to hole up. I'll be back for you-eh?" Sunstreaker tugged his foot out of Rodimus's grasp. "Hands off the merchandise!"

"You can't do this alone. It's not just Thornment-she and Aries have a whole army in there!" He coughed.

"I know." Sunstreaker shrugged. "That's the whole point. Once I'm in…it's a case of getting lost in the crowd."

"Slag. Listen to me, Sunstreaker. We need help…heavy hitters."

"Fine. Whatever. Call in the Calvary." Sunstreaker marched right past him and into the warehouse. "But right now, I'm going to find my head. My real head!"

"That arrogant, ignorant, insufferable…" Rodimus's curses devolved into a series of rough coughs that shook his frame.

"Relax, Rodimus. If we got your message, then so have the Autobots. But time is not on our side." Mugen took out her soplistic staff and jogged after Sunstreaker. "I'm going after him. You guys hide his body and do what you can to repair him."

"Sure, we'll do that." Night Scream sighed. He clapped his hands and turned to the Land Military Team. "Well, let's do some heavy lifting boys! This mech's not going to move himself."

Inside the warehouse, Sunstreaker had to contend with Darren's mental curses thrown at him.

"I know, I know. Old habits and all that! But you don't understand, Darren. I've had enough of waiting, enough of caution." He growled. "Each moment I delay, my mind is pillaged and pulled in a hundred different directions at once, and, well…a little bit more of me dies."

XXXXXX

"Decepticons, kill them!" Megatron roared.

The Decepticons were already mobilizing to fight the Barricade clones running onto the beach. Megatron and his ground units charged at the clone army and started tearing into their ranks. Dreadwing, Skywarp and Thundercracker changed into their jet modes and provided air support with a rain of laser blasts and missiles.

Rumble and Frenzy, the smallest Cons on the beach, tore apart the headmasters with great ferocity. Frenzy would scramble the headmasters' unprotected minds while Rumble would hit them with his pile drivers, smashing apart their chests and heads while slamming them into the ground to release powerful vibrations that threw them into the air. Demolishor was in his tank mode blasting apart the clones with pulse blasts and Megatron tore them apart with his bare hands. The others he destroyed with his fusion cannon.

"What the hell are these things?" Rumble growled, crushing the head of a headmaster in his claws before punching the body into another. "Where did they come from?"

"They're probably the fruits of OZ's experiments on Barricade's remains." Nightshade said, weaving through the clones and cutting them down with her swords, blasting some apart with Songbird's weapon mode, and using her bow to take out the targets farther out of her reach. "As for how they know our location-yet another result of them poking around in his head."

"At this point, we might as well put up a damn flag that shows we're here!" Megatron shouted and tore a headmaster in half. He was taking direct hits from the clones, but they weren't lethal. However, he was taking heavy fire and his body was already sporting serious burns along his armor.

Megatron punched and shot, but he knew he wasn't making much of a difference. For all the damage he, Nightshade, Demolishor, Frenzy and Rumble were doing, more would replace the fallen and attack them from all sides. Not to mention the Seekers were busy waylaying the fighters from bombarding the island with bombs and missiles. The only saving grace was that the headmasters were coming from the beach along and had to charge within firing range of the Nemesis' guns. "Leader-1, fire the proton torpedoes!"

The Minicon pressed a button and the Nemesis' guns locked onto the clones, firing a volley of high speed projectiles at the swarm. Leader-1 couldn't hide the satisfaction at seeing those human toys get blasted apart. Serves them right for thinking they could storm their island!

"Maintain fire on the beach! Nightshade, find the-agh!" Megatron hissed a jet of highly pressurized water pierced his armor at the shoulder and dug into his joint. He stumbled back and saw a blue talos in the distance, hovering atop a water spout. The Zodiac Aquarius. "Nightshade!"

She was already on the job, shifting to beast mode and flying toward the Zodiac. Nightshade heard a lot about this human from Starscream and she was prepared to wipe this bitch out of existence.

"Hello there!" Aquarius grinned in her talos. She waved her unit's arms ad sent two large water drills spiraling toward the Con. "I never got to fight you before!"

Nightshade spun in the air, weaving around the spinning water with ease, but the water stayed on her tail, tracking her like heat seeking missiles. Like snakes, they snapped at her tail feathers and coiled in the air in an attempt to snatch her out of the air. Nightshade flew as close as she could to Aquarius before transforming and firing an arrow from Gandiva.

Aquarius summoned a wall of ice to block the arrow, and the arrow exploded against the ice, shattering the wall. Aquarius escaped unharmed, but Nightshade shot through the ice shards and slammed into her talos.

"I'll crush your body in my hands, meat sack!" Nightshade hissed.

"You're welcome to try, bitch!" Aquarius grinned savagely.

Dreadwing, Thundercracker and Skywarp were still raining down hell upon the Barricade clones when Thundercracker spotted something in the distance.

"There's an airship heading for the island straight ahead." He said.

"I see it." Dreadwing said. "Skywarp, take it out."

"With pleasure."

Skywarp teleported over to the airship and immediately began attacking it with laser blasts along the side of the ship. He saw a hatch open by the underside of the ship and two men run out onto catwalks, but he paid them no attention…until they started slinging energy bolts at him.

"Scrap!" Skywarp weave through the air as long chains of energy spheres exploded across the sky, surrounding the ship. One sphere nearly took out his wing and he warped away to avoid getting destroyed. "Dreadwing, we've got a problem!"

" _What is it?"_

"This airship has a bunch of humans on it that have some serious firepower. I think they're espers or something!"

Dreadwing saw the airship with the two inhumans firing energy bolts all over the place. That ship was going to be a problem if it got close to the island. He growled and had Thundercracker follow him to intercept the ship and try to bring it down.

Meanwhile, Aquarius and Nightshade fought furiously. Nightshade still had a strong hold on the Codarl and was trying to grapple it, but Aquarius pushed her off and spun around, cracking a razor sharp water whip at the femme. Nightshade leaned back to avoid being beheaded, but she still got cut in her cheek. She boosted backwards and fired her railgun, which Aquarius avoided and drew the moisture around her in a large sphere.

I didn't peg you for a coward!" Nightshade shouted and took aim with Gandiva.

"Coward? You're one to talk. Pisces ran you and your boy toy off in a single hour!" Aquarius cackled and sent the water sphere exploded outward, freezing the water as it hit Nightshade.

Nightshade grunted as she was covered in a light layer of frost that almost sent her falling, but she quickly regained her balance…only to have the Codarl rush in and punch her in the face. Nightshade fell back and flipped under the talos, flanking Aquarius. She tried to stab the unit in the face, but Aquarius smacked her away with a liquid tentacle.

"You don't know when to quit!" Aquarius snarled. "You big robots like stomping over us tiny fleshies, don't ya? Well, let's see how you'll feel when you're the one being stomped on!"

Aquarius cut the power in her water spout and allowed her talos to fall into the ocean, narrowly avoiding another one of Gandiva's arrows as she crashed into the waves.

"Did you get her?" Megatron asked as Nightshade landed beside him. "There's only one answer to that question."

"Then you're going to be disappointed." Nightshade hissed back, not in the mood for his temper.

"Lord Megatron, lieutenant, look!" Demolishor ran beside them and pointed at the water. "The water's moving!"

The Decepticons looked to the ocean, where they saw a large whirlpool forming a mile from the shore. It was massive, swirling with such intensity that a luxury cruiser would be dragged in and torn apart. The water spun faster and faster before it rose into the air and began to form a massive figure.

It was another one of Aquarius's ice constructs, but this one was the largest she had ever created. It was basically a humanoid upper torso, with long arms ending with skinny hands tipped with sharp claws and jagged spikes stick out of its arms and shoulders. As If to hammer in her narcissism, its face was sculpted in a complete replica of Aquarius's. It stared down at them, standing 30 meters over the island from its torso alone.

Inside the construct, Aquarius smirked down at the shocked and awed Decepticons. "Now where were we?"

XXXXXX

As the three airships neared the Ark's location, Skyfire and Tomahawk were deployed to intercept them while they got the ship up and running. The airships were sporting enough firepower to do serious damage to the ship if they scored enough hits off it, so they needed take them out of the equation.

"Do you think those airships are armed?" Sparkplug asked.

"Most likely, and they're equipped with weapons capable of damaging the Ark if they get near us. Bumblebee, Ratchet, get this ship in the air and away from them before they can attack us." Optimus said. "Prowl, how many ground units are there?"

"Around 120 enemies." Prowl said. "And they're all headmasters, like the ones Rodimus fought. I'm also getting a large heat signature leading the army."

"That must be one of the Zodiac. An operation this large can't be left alone to a grunt." Jazz said. "What's the play, boss bot?"

Optimus was about to answer when he heard a roar coming from down the hall. "Let me go!"

He ran into the hall and saw Ratchet and Lifeline struggling to keep the Dynobots from leaving. "Grimlock, you can't just march out there without proper orders from-"

"Screw orders! Those bastards have come for round three and we're ready to pay them back in full!" Grimlock shouted at Ratchet. "Don't try to stop us, Ratchet. Those slagheaps are going to get there's!"

"Grimlock!" Optimus called out as he walked up to them. "Enough of this!"

"Don't even try, Prime! We want payback for all the slag those humans put us through!" Slag yelled.

"I know, which is why I'm sending your team on an important mission." Optimus said, catching their attention. "We've just got a distress signal from Rodimus. He's found OZ's main headquarters and needs our help. With the headmaster army poised to storm the Ark, I can't spare a single Autobot in defense of the Ark, so you Dynobots are going to hit them where it hurts."

Sludge blinked. "But, the headmasters…"

"If we want to gain an advantage in this battle, you need to hit them at their base. Rescue Rodimus, Sunstreaker, and Darren, and destroy the hub that's controlling these headmasters." Optimus didn't hide the implications behind this order. "You want revenge against the people who enslaved you? Well, you'll find them there."

Grimlock stared down at Optimus for a moment before nodding. "Fine. We'll take out those bastards. But what are you going to do?"

"What do you think?" Optimus's voice was low and actually a bit menacing, the only hint at his anger at OZ for this turn of events. Grimlock almost felt sorry for those humans. An angry Optimus was a dead enemy.

Outside, the headmaster army charged through the forest towards the volcano that held the Ark. at their lead was Pisces, now in his giant Armored Titan form, his white plated armor bright in the dark forest. Though he could not speak, his soldiers could tell that Pisces was very satisfied with taking the fight to the Autobots for them ruining his Inhuman project, which was just barely hanging on thanks to the shortage of Catalyst.

There was a big rumble and the Ark slowly began to lift off. Anticipating this, Pisces signaled for the airships to move in and blast the ship out of the sky. As the fiery exhaust of the ship's thrusters lit up the forest and its maneuvering thrusters lifted the ship off the ground, they saw a group of figures standing in the light of the ship's ascension. Something told Pisces to stop and take cover, which he did, and he was glad that he listened to his innate sense of danger.

"Autobots!" Optimus Prime bellowed. "Open fire!"

An intense volley of plasma bursts, photon blasts and missile fire hit the first wave of headmasters with surprising accuracy. The unsuspecting mechanoids were blown apart mercilessly by the wall of energy fire that tore into them easily. Pisces took cover behind the tree, surprised at the lack of restraint the Autobots showed to the clones of their dear friend, and the lack of mercy when it came to gunning them down. He thought they would've at least hesitated as fighting humans.

'Prime must know it's a do or die situation.' Pisces thought. 'At least he's not entirely spineless.'

Two dozen headmasters were taken out from the Autobot's first assault, and the others had the sense to finally fire back at them. Wheeljack dropped a couple of overcharge shields to block the blasts and mitigate the damages. Prowl calculated the number of enemies they would be fighting and grimaced.

"Prime, we won't be able to hold this position for long." He said. "If their advance becomes too heavy, we might be forced to pull back."

"Then we cause as much damage to them as possible!" Optimus transformed to his truck mode and drove straight into a group of clones, switching back to robot mode and swinging his battle ace in a sweeping arc that cut them all in half at once. "Don't let any one of them near the Ark. Use lethal force if you have to." Optimus took out his ion cannon and started shooting them. "Show them that we won't tolerate intruders on our home!"

XXXXXX

Sunstreaker drove through the large halls of the OZ central base, deep under the mansion above ground. Neither he nor Darren knew how large this base was, and fortunately, the other headmasters patrolling the area paid them no mind. Sunstreaker's little gamble was actually paying off.

"It's close. Can you feel it, Darren? It's right here." Sunstreaker transformed to robot mode and looked around. He could feel his head close by, resonating with his and Darren's mental synapses. "It's close enough…to touch…"

He was about to turn down one of the corridors when a beam tore through his chest from behind. Pain erupted through his connection with Darren and he collapsed to the floor, his body failing almost immediately. Down the hall, Thornment walked up to him, having taken the shot in her alt mode.

"Did you think I wouldn't know the moment you set foot on this base?" She laughed. "Every one of the headmasters bears its own unique recognition stamp. We took precautions in case anyone tried to run off with your investment. Truly, your hubris knows no limits."

Thornment stood over Sunstreaker, ready to tear off his head and crush the human inside…only to find the head missing.

"NO!" Thornment screamed. She looked around the dark halls for any sign of the human, but saw no sign of Darren.

Darren was crouched in a corner out of sight, holding Excalibur close to him. He was hunched over in pain, sweating profusely, suffering from the phantom pain he took upon having his transector mortally damaged. It was agonizing!

"Where do you think you can hide, boy? How long do you think you'll last?" Thornment yelled into the darkness. "Alone…in terrible, unspeakable pain, nursing a hole in the very fabric of what you might call a soul. Let it end-now."

Darren panted and closed her eyes, trying to block her out. Excalibur hummed and vibrated in his grasp. Still she continued. "I promise you it will all end before you even know it!"

On a nearby screen, Scorpio's face appeared on the monitor, looking less than pleased. "Thornment, we have a problem."

"What?!" She spat. "What could be so pressing, Scorpio, that you cannot simply deal with it yourself?"

"A ground bridge just opened up in our front yard and five Autobots just hopped out." Scorpio was smirking at her, despite the circumstances. "You should be familiar with them."

If Thornment had skin, it would've gone pale. "The Dynobots!"

Outside, the Land Military team and Night Scream paused in their little repair session of Rodimus when they heard the headmaster patrols running for the courtyard. Night Scream looked up and saw missile pods, auto-guns, rocket launchers and plasma cannons rise up from hidden compartments along the ground and buildings.

"What's going on?" He asked. He jumped as he heard as a monstrous roar pierced the silence, followed by explosions. "Whoa…"

Rodimus smirked. "Looks like the Dynobots are back for round two."

XXXXXX

The ice colossus loomed over Decepticon Island like an oppressive monolith, its human-like face staring down at them almost mockingly. Megatron could see Aquarius' talos encased within its torso like a heart and called out to his forces.

"L-lord Megatron, what do we do?" Demolishor asked.

"What do you think? We keep killing these cheap imitations!" He shouted. "Nightshade, take the Seekers and bring that thing down!"

Nightshade and the three Seekers flew into the air to gain some altitude before shooting for the construct in formation. The colossus slowly turned towards them before lifting its arm and throwing a massive fist at them. The flyers broke formation and flew around the arm, spinning around the limb while firing their missiles and dropping bombs as they neared its face. They broke apart to circle around for another strike and the colossus lashed out with another punch. Again, they easily avoided its fist and flew along the length of its arm towards its face.

'It's large, but it's slow. Aquarius traded superior mobility for increased physical power and defense.' Dreadwing thought.

'Damn fool. She can barely move in that form, let alone touch us.' Nightshade thought. But she noticed that the damage done to its body from the missiles were sealing over. 'Causing serious damage to it's going to be hard. As long as it's connected to the water, it can't be seriously damaged long enough to get to her. I might have to use Gandiva.'

"Dreadwing, keep shooting at it from the front. I'm going to attack its flank!" Nightshade said and circled around to its back. Dreadwing, Thundercracker and Skywarp opened fire with their missiles and guns, peppering its face and chest. Almost immediately, the holes they left started to close from drawing upon the moisture in the air and water.

Nightshade reached its back and shifted forms, drawing Gandiva's string back and charging for a powerful arrow. "Goodbye."

As if on cue, right when Nightshade released the bow string, the colossus released a powerful cloud of ice cold water vapor from its body. Nightshade and the Seekers fell back from the blistering cold that washed over them. Nightshade tried to take another shot, but Songbird sent her a mental impulse.

"Mistress, the vapor!" Songbird cried out. "It's freezing over!"

Nightshade's eyes went wide as she saw the layer of ice creeping along her armor at a rapid pace. "Slag!"

"Nightshade, we must fall back or we'll freeze from the inside out!" Dreadwing said.

"Seekers, pull back." Nightshade scowled. "Focus on taking out that airship."

Megatron saw the flyers breaking contact with the colossus and yelled up at Nightshade. "What the hell are you doing? Kill her!"

"Lord Megatron," Leader-1 called. "I see a large energy discharge gathering in front of the airship. I think they're planning on hitting the Nemesis head on!"

Megatron looked up and saw the two humans standing next to each other with a growing energy sphere forming in front of them. If they fired that, they could potentially crack the ship in half, if not leave it unable to fly at all!

XXXXXX

Onboard the Ark, Ratchet and Lifeline were piloting the ship while battling the large OZ airship that was firing upon them the moment they took to the air. Instead of normal guns and cannons, the airship was firing plasma blasts that bombarded the Ark's hull, along with armor piercing missiles and HEAT shells aimed at vital areas. Things were made more complicated by the inhumans trying to annihilate Skyfire and Tomahawk whenever they tried to get close enough to attack the ship.

The OZ battleship was only half the size of the Ark, but its weapons were developed for the sole purpose of combating cybertronian vessels. The Ark had to result to using its particle combustion cannons as the airship had interceptors to shoot down any missiles fired at them. The inhumans standing on the sides of the catwalks released powerful energy bolts that left deep gouges in the armor and lit up the night sky like fireworks. They were the ones who did the most damage.

On the ground, Team Prime fought the headmasters with a ferocity that caught Pisces off guard. Their abilities augmented by their Minicon partners, the Autobots showed no resistance in shooting down the clones of their comrade, regardless of the humans serving as heads. Optimus in particular was almost brutal in the way he dispatched them, either cutting them down with his battle blade or shooting holes through them with his ion cannon.

"We keep cutting them down but more just keep coming!" Wheeljack grunted, hissing as a heat beam hit his shoulder. "Scrap, these guys are persistent."

Bulkhead rammed through four clones and swung his wrecking ball in a circle to smack them away. "Why aren't they swarming us? They could easily overpower us in a heartbeat!"

"They're afraid of the Ark raining down hell on them. Our laser emitters were designed to tear apart enemy infantry to clear the landing zone and-" Prowl grunted as a headmaster rammed into him and knocked him over. He quickly took him out with a well-placed jab from his shock baton and kicked him off before using him as a shield to deflect the other heat beams coming his way. "They just know the Ark can take them out and won't rush in until it's dealt with!"

"Hence the airship. Got it." Wheeljack noted. He saw something flying at them through the trees. "We've got incoming!"

They jumped aside as a headmaster corpse slammed into the ground with the force of a boulder. More bodies were thrown into the air at the Autobots, some missed, but Moonracer, who was sniping from her position on a tree branch, was hit and knocked off by a headmaster's body. Bumblebee looked over to where the bodies were being thrown from and saw the culprit.

"It's him!" Bumblebee pointed at the white armored giant grabbing clone bodies and throwing them like balls. "The Zodiac!"

Jazz and Arcee were quick to open fire at Pisces, but their laser blasts were mostly ineffective against his diamond-hard armor. Prowl shot a shoulder-mounted rocket at him, but Pisces kicked the shell out of the air and let it explode behind him. He glared at the Autobots and rolled his shoulders before running at them in a full sprint.

"He's charging at us!" Wheeljack said.

"I see that!" Prowl yelled.

Pisces gained speed as he barreled through the battlefield without a care for his own troops that he smack aside. He was only focused on destroying the Autobots. He got within a foot of them before a red body slammed into him from the side and knocked him over. He rolled across the ground and got to his feet, glaring at the offender-the Autobot Ironhide.

"Miss me?" Ironhide grinned and charged into Pisces, lifting the taller giant over his head and throwing him a couple of feet away.

Pisces' large body smashed into a group of headmasters, crushing their smaller bodies under his weight as he skidded across the ground. Pisces dug his fingers into the dirt and slowed down, growling and standing up as Ironhide walked over to him.

"If guns don't work on ya, then how about some old fashioned fists?" Ironhide cracked his knuckles.

Pisces stepped forward and threw a punch at Ironhide's face, but the Autobot ducked under his fist and slammed his own punch into Pisces' face. The punch chipped armor off Ironhide's knuckles, and if he wasn't so densely armored, he would've broken his hand on his face. But he was able to make Pisces stagger back a bit. He threw a quick kick to Pisces' abdomen-a clean hit. Despite his armor, the blow seemed to reach Pisces' core. Flying with the force of a cannon ball, his body collided with a nearby tree and uprooted it.

Ironhide, who landed the first blow, maintained his edge. He struck again and again and Pisces staggered and forgot his footwork. Still, as time passed, Ironhide's blows began to fail more and more gradually. The durability of Pisces' thick skin bolstered both his offense and defense, and Ironhide was clearly getting worn down. He swung his fists less frequently, and began to assume a more reactive posture. His fists were scratched severely, the armor on his knuckles work away, and any crack that appeared on Pisces' armored skin immediately healed.

Sensing Ironhide's weakening stamina, Pisces took advantage to land a few blows of his own. On his head, side, torso and thighs, Pisces mercilessly rained down blows that would've finished off a less armored Autobot.

Eventually, Ironhide leaned against a tree, his body sporting indents and his face leaking energon from his bruises. Certain of victory, Pisces relaxed a little and he marched forward, taking excruciating amount of time on each step, as if relishing the hunt. Ironhide looked too exhausted to move as Pisces stood over him, white glassy eyes shining like headlights. Summoning strength into his limbs, Ironhide rerouted power to the fuel lines in his right arm and leapt forward, punching Pisces in the face with everything he had…

Only for Pisces to reach in a heartbeat, returning the punch with one of his own. Pisces' fist hit Ironhide's face dead on, slamming into him with enough force to shatter the optic lens over his left eye. The punch sent Ironhide sailing through the air, smashing through multiple soldiers before hitting the base of a tree thirty feet away. Jazz, who was almost hit by the flying Autobot, ran over to Ironhide's side.

"Hide! What happened to ya, man?" Jazz checked his friend over. "Come on, old timer, now's not the time for nappin'."

Pisces took a moment to appraise his work before getting into a crouch. Pushing off the ground in a sprint, Pisces charged at the two Autobots, fully intending to finish off both Jazz and Ironhide in one blow. But his charge was cut short once again by an ion blast hitting him in the side of his head. He stumbled from the attack and tripped over his feet, hitting the ground in a roll. He glared at his attacker and growled.

"Your fight is with me, Zodiac." Optimus said, holstering his ion cannon. "And rest assured, I'm not so easy to beat."

Pisces accepted the challenge without hesitation. Another chance to fight Prime meant another chance to lord his victory over Aries.

XXXXXX

Darren's condition slowly improved as he walked deeper into the facility. He heard the sounds of battle up top and knew that things were starting to kick off. He could feel Sunstreaker pulling him towards where his missing head is, and allowed the Autobot to guide him toward their destination, but the Autobot's voice was faint in his mind.

"Keep talking, Sunny. I need to keep from passing out." Darren said. He felt another tingle run up his arm and glanced down at Excalibur. "And whatever you're doing, keep doing it. I think I can run without coiling like a snake."

He turned a corner and yelped as a pulse blast shot dangerously close to his face, nearly singeing his hair. A large form charged at him from down the hall and he raised Excalibur just in time to block the large metal fist aimed at his head. He was knocked back off his feet, hitting the floor hard before rolling to his feet.

"You got to be kidding me." Darren groaned as he saw his attacker.

It was Heavy Metal, the only other Minicon gestalt aside from Centurion in the Minicon's combiner program. She stood tall and strong, unrelenting as the final obstacle in his path.

"Aries told me about you. You're one of the humans that attacked the moonbase." Heavy Metal slammed her fists together. "You destroyed deca-cycles of work, you hairless ape!"

"The Cons had a hand in that too, you crazy three faced psycho!" Darren growled.

"They are not here," Heavy Metal said. "But you are."

She sprinted forward and Darren braced himself for the battle, but when she got near him, a pink blur flipped over him-it was Mugen. Mugen kicked Heavy Metal in the chest and stabbed her staff into her shoulder. The violent electrical jolt that lanced through her joint caused Heavy Metal to stumble back and fall to her knees.

"Darren, run!" Mugen yelled, jamming her staff deeper into the gestalt.

"Mugen…"

"We're close enough to finish this, but we're running out of time. Just go!" She turned her green eyes to his and smiled. "I'll be fine, but this nightmare will only end when you get to the hub."

Darren clenched his teeth and nodded. Lifting Excalibur over his shoulder, he ran past them and down the hall. Only he could stop this now.


	43. The Divine Comedy-Paradiso

Chapter 43-The Divine Comedy-Paradiso

Debbie, Annie and Gina held onto each other as the Ark shook violently from the sounds of battle it was taking part in, along with the rest of the Minicons that didn't take part in the fight. They were all watching the monitor showing the battle on the ground where their friends were fighting ceaselessly for them.

"Annie, is this hell?" Debbie whispered.

"No, but its close." Annie said.

"How is the battle going?" Opal, an orange Minicon, asked.

"The Autobots are holding off the headmasters well enough, but there are so many of those things that taking them all out will be hard." Roll Bar said, checking the camera feeds. "And the Ark is currently engaged with an airship that's laying down some heavy firepower."

"But the Ark shouldn't be having this much trouble taking out one airship." Annie said.

"It's got inhumans launching attacked at the ship. Skyfire and Tomahawk can't do much without getting blown apart if they get too close."

Gina bit her lip and stood up, catching everyone's attention as she marched out of the room. Sureshock and Sara followed after her ran after her.

"Where are you going?" Sureshock asked.

"To suit up, what else?" Gina said, not slowing down. "Someone has to take out that airship before it either damages the Ark or attacks the Bots on the ground."

"Gina, that's too dangerous." Sureshock said. "Without Darren or Annie to back you up, you'll be alone. You'll get shot down out there."

"And we'll all die if they shoot down this ship. All they need is one good shot and the Ark is a fireball of death." Gina spun around and grabbed Sureshock's shoulders to stop her. "We need to do something, no matter how dangerous. And I'm going to need your help. You, Sara and Annie."

"M-Me?" Annie stammered. "Gina, I'm missing an arm and an eye. What the hell can I do?"

"You can still swing a hammer." Gina replied. "You aren't a girl who's going to stand around while her friends need you. We both have the power to do a lot of damage, Annie."

"Just out of curiosity," Annie said. "What do you have in mind?"

"Something wicked." Gina smirked. "How do you feel about helping me take out an airship?"

Outside, the aerial battle continued with its chaotic fervor as Autobots and humans fought furiously within their respective vessels. The Ark's fired its particle cannons, which bounced off the shields of the airship while distortion halos surrounded the aircraft in blindingly white rings of energy spheres that exploded in the air.

Skyfire and Tomahawk were kept at bay by these spheres and the anti-aircraft plasma cannons. They were forced to attack the cannons and missile launchers that tried to blast them out of the sky, but the airship's surface-level shielding made it difficult.

"We can't keep playing shooting gallery with these guys, Hawk!" Skyfire grunted as a missile nearly got her in the wing. "We need to think of something!"

"I'm open to suggestions!" Tomahawk snapped and shot two missiles at the gun turrets trying to attack her. A halo bolt destroyed them and nearly cut her in half had she not swerved out of the way. "Those guys are starting to piss me off!"

"Bugger me, Hawk, we need help." Skyfire said.

"From who? The Ark has its hands full just fighting this thing, and we're the only ones that can fly." She replied.

Suddenly a giant particle beam burst from the forest below and hit the underbelly of the airship, rocking it. Its shield flickered for a moment before stabilizing, though everyone onboard were nearly knocked off their feet.

"Where did that come from?" Tomahawk asked. Skyfire pointed to the forest below.

"Down there!"

A white figure flew from the forest, with a trailing of sparkling green energy trailing behind it. It was the Athena, with its beam cannon unfolded and carrying two small people on its shoulders. It was Annie and Gina!

"What are they doing? They'll get killed!" Tomahawk yelled.

"Nah, they're just showing us girls how it's done, Terran-style!" Skyfire said proudly. "Let's cover them!"

Sara piloted the Athena with grace and skill that far surpassed Gina's learning curve. She utilized the talos' abilities and weapons with surgical position, hitting and running to avoid having the two girls on her shoulders getting hurt.

"You better not drop me, Centurion." Annie grunted as the Minicon gestalt kept a firm grasp on her body. "I'm nervous enough as it is."

"Focus, Annie, we're coming up on the ship now!" Gina said.

The Athena flew over to the side where the two inhumans were giving their Autobot friends so many problems. Seeing the talos appear in their sight, they summoned their distortion halo effects to annihilate the new target, only to be surprised when the energy bolts were diffused by another energy wave coming from the mecha's shoulders. Gina gritted her teeth as she kept her halo effect within her line of sight before quickly parting the field.

"Now, Annie!"

Annie spun Mjolnir in her hand before letting the hammer fly forward. Crackling with charged energy, the hammer slammed right into the platform where the two inhumans were standing in and destroyed it, blasting apart their bodies and leaving a smoking hole where they once stood. The port side cannons spun around and shot at them, forcing Sara to fly back and return fire.

"That's right, girls. Show 'em who's boss!" Skyfire cheered.

"We still need to blast though their shield first before causing some real damage." Gina said, her eyes glowing with power. "You ladies ready to wreck some shit?"

Annie grinned and said, "I really hope we end up sisters in laws. My family needs more girls like you."

XXXXXX

"This is madness." Froza mumbled. "This is insanity."

"What is? The battle outside or the ice giant beat the slag out of the Cons?" Downshift asked.

"Everything!"

"Hush!" Indy hissed. The Minicon team sneaked through the halls, trying to ignore the explosions rattling the ship. "We're close, so stay together and stay quiet. Knockout and Leader-1's cronies are still hovering around."

It was a risky plan given the fact that they were still sporting the master locks that transmitted their location outside the Nemesis. With the Barricade headmasters attacking the Nemesis, Indy figured this was the perfect time to get off the ship and away from the island. By rights, they shouldn't have been able to try this in the first place, but thanks to Indy feigning shutdown multiple times during Knockout's attempts to disable the failsafe on their powerlink abilities, he managed to hold out as long as possible. The Skyboom shield was too delicate a weapon to lose.

With Ariel's help, he was able to release his teammates from their inhibitor clamps that hindered their transformation ability. But if they were caught, Skyboom shield or not, they were dead.

"Are you sure this is the way to the ground bridge?" Forza whispered.

"Positive. Ariel knows where it is from her recon with Dreadwing." Indy said, peeking around a corner. "She verified it for me."

"And she didn't want to come with us?" Downshift asked.

"Ariel didn't want to leave Dreadwing. She said she owed him for saving her life." He said sadly. "She's been through a lot during the War for Cybertron, lost too many partners to the fighting. I guess she doesn't want to leave another."

"And Terradive's team?"

"They weren't able to get away from Songbird. They said to go without them." Indy answered, though he knew it was more than that. Terradive's team had begun taking a liking to the Decepticons, or at least Dreadwing. They found the idea of becoming top dog in the universe inviting, a great idea. To them, it was something to cater to their archaic bloodlust that they lorded over the other Minicons back on Moonbase Alpha. "Let's go."

"Go where, you little bastards?"

They froze as they saw Rook and Crosswise walking toward them, red eyes glinting in the purple light.

"Rook, Crosswise," Indy said, lifting a hand. "Don't do this."

"Do what?" Rook laughed.

"Our jobs?" Crosswise growled.

"Don't even think about it. You're Minicons, like us. We shouldn't be fighting like this." Downshift pleaded.

"We're Decepticons, you damn fool. We only went along with you slagheaps because Dualor forced us to." Rook said. "And when we're done with you…"

Rook knelt down and his upper body folded backwards, while Crosswise jumped on him, his legs doing the same. They connected at the torso and stood over the three Minicons as the two-mech combiner gestalt, Bishop.

"…Dualor and his mechs will die by our hands!" Bishop rumbled, stomping forward.

Bishop charged at them like a mad bull aiming to rip them to pieces. Indy wasn't even thinking hard when he gave the order to merge. "Combine!"

Indy, Forza and Downshift transformed and combined into a large golden shield just a few inches taller than Bishop. It generated a protective magnetic field along its surface just as Bishop threw a punch at them. The minute his fist hit the shield, the kinetic energy used in the punch was redirected back at Bishop, repelling him violently. The blast wave also pushed the targetmaster gestalt back down the hall, conveniently toward their destination.

Using the opportunity, the shield hovered along the ground and down the hall toward the shuttle bay, where the ground bridge was. The Race Team separated and Indy hopped onto the console, typing in randomized coordinates and pulling the lever.

"Come on, come on, come on!" Forza said, hopping in placed nervously. He jumped in joy as the ground bridge flared up. "Yes!"

"Stop you little brats!" Knockout appeared in the doorway, wielding a plasma rifle in hand.

"No!" Forza cried.

"Go to hell, Con!" Indy said and jumped off the console just as Knockout fired at him. He combined with his friends and formed the Skyboom shield again, deflecting the blaster bolt the medic fired at them.

"Ah!" Knockout yelped as his reflected laser hit the wall near his face, and this distracted him long enough for the Minicons to hover into the portal, which instantly vanished. "NO!"

Knockout ran over to the controls to switch the bridge back on, but he was horrified to see that the computer had reset itself. He couldn't go after them as their last coordinates were deleted instantly. "Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no."

As Knockout tried to dispel his terrible blunder, he felt the Nemesis shake violently and heard loud explosions all along the already ravaged hull of the ship, from the upper deck to the engine room. Seconds later, Skywarp appeared.

"Skywarp, we have a problem!" Knockout said at breathtaking speeds. "Those Minicon combiners, that stupid racing team or whatever just flew the coop and-"

"Forget about that!" Skywarp growled. "Those clones are tearing us apart out there, and there's a freaking ice giant wreaking havoc on the island. We need reinforcements!"

Rein-who else can you bring in to help? Lugnut, Blackout, Skyquake, those thousands of Barricades trying to kill us outside? We're the only Cons on this planet you moron!" Knockout yelled. "Unless you want to give Flamewar a call. Just have everything go full circle this time with her and those stupid Insecticons!"

Skywarp shook his head and glared at Knockout. "There is one person with the special ability to shut those tin cans and that airship down."

Knockout's eyes went wide and he shook his head. "No…no, we are not doing that. Megatron will have our heads and our Sparks!"

"We have to. Those clones are wearing us down and that ice giant is kliks away from cracking this ship in half. We need to wake him up."

"Not listening!" Knockout put his hands to his audials, but Skywarp pulled his arms apart.

"We need Starscream."

XXXXXX

Mugen always wanted a crack at one of the gestalts Sparkplug made when she first heard about them. Combiners that have the strength of Rumble and the physical might of Frenzy was something that Minicons only dreamed about, and Mugen herself wished she had been one of the candidates for the gestalt program. But fighting Heavy Metal right now only mad her regret wishing for that.

The female gestalt was fast as she was strong and she displayed a crude but effective fighting style that forced her to avoid getting pulled in and given a bear hug that would snap her in two. She was forced to jump off the walls and leap over Heavy Metal, who chased her around the hall and tried to grab her for a fatal blow. Mugen landed on the floor and leapt back to avoid a sweeping kick at her head, spinning around to slash her staff across her chest.

Heavy Metal growled and dodged a stab from the staff, before snatching it and pulling Mugen forward. Cocking her fist back, she punched Mugen in the face and sent her flying back a few feet into a wall. Mugen spat out some energon and shook her head, cursing when she saw Heavy Metal charging at her. She flipped over the gestalt and tried to stab her staff into Heavy Metal's back, but she spun around and kicked Mugen in the chest.

"Why are you doing this?" Mugen coughed. "They're trying to wipe out our kind. Our people!"

"The Autobots and Decepticons are not our kind, and never will be." Heavy Metal growled. "They're war mongers that have torched our home and sent us running scared into the stars because they're too weak to finish each other off. And if the humans are our only solution to solving our problems, then so be it."

"Did you see what they've done to Sunstreaker and Barricade? That's all we are to them, hardware and machinery to be taken apart!" Mugen said, slowly edging backward from the advancing gestalt. "You're just as much expendable to OZ as the Destruction Team was, and they won't hesitate to desecrate your remains."

"You're one to talk. We wouldn't be in this mess if it weren't for you sabotaging the Exodus!" Heavy Metal snarled. "We will gain our retribution for selling us out to the Cons you filthy traitor!"

"Heavy Metal, please…don't do this." Mugen pleaded one last time. "Think about what you're doing."

"Would you have offered that sentiment if we were begging for you to stop your madness?" Heavy Metal replied. "Don't preach what you can't practice!"

Heavy Metal lunged at Mugen, slamming both fists down on her. Mugen jumped aside and let the gestalt crash into the ground, causing the metal plates to cave in and break apart. Mugen spun her staff and stabbed it into Heavy Metal's back as hard as she could, piercing her spinal strut and going straight through her chest. Her Spark chamber was ruptured and Heavy Metal coughed up energon.

Mugen pulled her staff free and shoved a frag grenade into the hole she made. Pulling Heavy Metal close, she whispered, "When you go to hell, say hello to Dualor for me."

Kicking Heavy Metal away, she covered her face when the grenade exploded, blasting the gestalt apart in a ball of fire. Mugen felt no sympathy for the dead femmes that composed the combiner-she gave them an offer of mercy and they made the wrong choice. If this happened back in the day, she would've made their deaths far slower. She hissed as she touched her throbbing side, which was dented from that punch she took earlier.

"That's what I get for showing mercy." She grumbled and ran down the hall. "Now I got to help Darren before that kid runs into something else."

XXXXXX

The Dynobots stood in the Ark's shuttle bay waiting for Teletran-1 to fix on the coordinates of the OZ base to ground bridge them in. The entire ship shook from the sounds of battle outside, and as much as they wanted to go outside and tear apart those headmaster freaks, they had another task ahead of them. Grimlock was ready for the intense battle ahead, but his team wasn't as excited as they should be.

Tell me again, Grimlock," Sludge said. "Why even bother about Thornment? Whatever she's up to here, I plainly don't care."

"Yeah, it's Prime's fight, not ours." Snarl agreed.

"Thornment made it our fight when she got into your heads, turned you against me." Grimlock growled, brandishing his energo-sword. "It's the Dynobot way."

"No. It's your way. It's always been about you. We were just along for the ride." Sludge muttered. His words lacked any rancor, which was probably why Grimlock had trouble looking at him. "Here, now-this is about your wounded pride. Tell me, Grimlock, does getting even matter so much, you're willing to take us all down with you?"

Teletran gave a confirmation signal and activated the ground bridge. Grimlock stared up at Sludge forlornly and turned around.

"There's no way I can let this go." He said, stomping toward the portal. "With you, without you…there'll be a reckoning!"

Grimlock charged into the bridge and reappeared inside the courtyard of Epsilon Holdings. There was already a battalion of Codarl talos ready to greet him, but before he could crush them underfoot, Snarl and Sludge burst out of the ground bridge with Swoop and Slag. Snarl rammed into the talos, ripping into them with his bare hands.

"Y'know, why even fight it?" Snarl rumbled. "I'd rather go down brawling here than keep on chasing a myth of what was…and can likely never be again!"

"Fellow Dynobots," Swoop fired two rockets at two Orions. "It's been an honor and a privilege-"

"Hey, hey," Sludge transformed to his beast mode and crushed a few headmasters under his bulk. "We ain't dead yet!"

In the control center, Thornment watched the battle with barely restrained anger. "Why isn't this over already? You, restore the neural clamps on the Dynobots."

"I…can't," The officer gulped. "The implants aren't responding."

"And yet I still underestimate you, Grimlock." She muttered.

"What now?" Scorpio asked.

"I'll deal with them personally," She said and grinned down at Scorpio. "And you're going to help me!"

XXXXXX

Darren stood before the large metal doors that led to the central hub of the headmaster network. Sunstreaker was already raving in his head, but Darren didn't need any more confirmation. He already knew from that tugging sensation in his mind. Taking a deep breath, he took a telekinetic hold of the steel doors and pulled them apart with a groan.

The first thing he saw were the disembodied heads of Barricade and Sunstreaker, sitting on pedestals with wires connected to them. Barricade's head was in better shape, though it lacked the intelligent glow it once had in life, his black armor now a light grey, like that of an actual corpse. Sunstreaker's head looked as ravaged as it did before, hooked up to the remains of his torso with his Spark core still intact. Both heads were protected by a light blue force field, and standing before them was…

"Hello boy." Aries greeted him. "No, I should call you by your name-Darren Radcliffe. You've shown a great deal of perseverance to fight your way here with nothing but the clothes on your back and your wits."

Darren stepped into the chamber, glaring at the Zodiac with hatred he never felt before in his life. Aries wasn't offended by his silence and pointed at the two heads.

"This is what you came here for, yes?" He asked. "You're going to have to get past me to get them. I will not let one child ruin our chances of preserving the future of this world!"

"Go to hell!" Darren snarled, lifting Excalibur. "You're just a terrorist with a god complex. You and the other generals, you're all just as human as me and the rest of the people on this planet!"

"DON'T COMPARE ME TO YOU SAVAGES! I, along with my brothers and sisters are humanity's kings and queens. We've spent a hundred and fifty years forging OZ into the power it is today. Over a century of subverting those pompous fools who think that they're in control, that they are the apex species at the top of nature's divine pyramid, but they're wrong!" Aries shouted, Clarent blazing on his back. "That position belongs to us, the Zodiac, who will show mankind how wrong they were to think that they've reached their limits! We have made many sacrifices to get this far, and I will now allow you to ruin everything we've worked for!"

Darren raised Excalibur, which glowed in the presence of its darker half. "You must not believe it that much if you keep on shouting it. I'm going to end this nightmare, Aries, and I'm going to kill you for all the shit you've put me through!"

"You can try, boy!"

Aries stomped a foot into the floor, denting the metal sheets under him before lunging at Darren. Darren met his lunge with a leap of his own and they met in the air where their swords clashed. Sparks and energy erupted from where Excalibur and Clarent touched, and the blades gave a high-pitched whine that nearly blew out their ear drums. They pushed away from each other and fought furiously, slashing and stabbing, each parry causing energy to arc out of their blades.

Darren held his own very well against Aries, but the Zodiac was stronger and more skilled with his sword. He parried Darren's strikes easily and forced his blade to the ground, backhanding Darren across the face and sent him into one of the computers.

"You're no warrior, Darren. Fighting me one on one is suicide." Aries growled, raising Clarent above his head. "You should know better than to fight a demigod!"

He leapt at Darren and slashed at his head. Darren force pushed himself off the floor, barely dodging Clarent as it hit the spot where his head had just been. It released a powerful energy wave that broke the floor apart and sent Darren flying back. He landed on his feet and formed a TK staff, smacking Aries in the face. The general stumbled back and Darren rushed him with Excalibur, performing a slash at his chest. Aries blocked the attack and glared at Darren as they fell into another deadlock.

"You're weak." Aries said. "You still haven't recovered from your transector getting wounded. The phantom pain is still there, eating away at you."

"Shut up!"

Darren tried to push Aries back with his telekinesis, but Aries kicked him in the chest and fired his eye beam. Darren raised Excalibur and summoned a force field to block the beam. It crashed against his defenses and pushed him back several feet. Darren gritted his teeth as Aries kept the beam going and held his feet in place to keep himself from getting pinned to the wall. If that happened, it was only a matter of time before exhaustion caused his TK barrier to vanish.

'Hold…hold!' Darren chanted in his mind. He knew Excalibur was helping channel power into the barrier, but it wouldn't be enough to match Aries' strength. He cracked open one of his eyes and noticed the console that generated the force field. 'Please work!'

Darren tilted his blade a bit and used his barrier to reflect the beam away from him onto the wall beside him. Like a beam of light on a mirror, he angled Excalibur to control the attack along the wall before moving it over the force field to the generator. Aries didn't realize what he was doing until it was too late.

"What?" Aries saw what Darren was doing and cut the beam off, but not before Darren hit the generator and destroyed the console. "NO!"

The machine exploded violently, blasting Darren and Aries away from each other. Darren stumbled over his feet, but he was relieved to see that his gamble paid off. With the generator gone, the force fields surrounding the heads flickered and died, leaving them exposed. Darren jumped up and limped over to the power cords channeling power to the heads.

"It's…over…" Darren raised Excalibur to cut through the cables leading to Barricade's head, but as he brought the sword down, Clarent flew through the air and stabbed into his shoulder, piercing his armor and searing his flesh underneath. The sword continued until it embedded itself into the wall, pinning Darren off his feet. Darren screamed in agony as the red hot sword burned his shoulder, sending waves of excruciating pain up his left side.

"You'll do no such thing!" Aries hissed. "You'll die here, along with your filthy Autobot pets!"

Aries prepared to fire his concussion beam, but a tingle at the back of his neck caused him to jump away to avoid the photon blast that almost blew his head off. He glared at the attacker and was surprised to see it was Mugen, who was charging at him. She rammed her shoulder into his chest and slammed him into the wall.

"Get away from my friend!" She growled.

"First a child, now a Minicon. What else will the world throw at me to test my dedication?" Aries sneered.

"How about the Dynobots currently fragging your base topside?" Mugen smirked.

Aries' eyes bulged in anger and he kicked her away, landing on his feet and spinning around her. He called Clarent to his land, and the sword left Darren's shoulder to fly into his grasp. But before it could even touch his fingers, Mugen punched him in the ribs, breaking his concentration. Clarent fell to the floor as Mugen and Aries fought each other in a fierce battle of fists. Despite being more durable than the average human, Aries still felt pain every time she hit him. Mugen twirled her staff around her body and slashed at him, forcing him on the defensive.

He took a deep breath and fired a beam from his third eye, but Mugen smacked him in the face just as he did so. The beam shot inches away from the Barricade head, hitting the wall behind it. Cursing, Aries ceased his attack and instead focused on taking her out with his bare hands. Mugen leapt at him and threw a kick at his head, only to have her leg grabbed and her entire body thrown into the wall. She rolled aside to avoid the punch he threw at her face and rushed him, slamming into his chest and sending them both to the ground.

Mugen adjusted her grip on her staff, shoving it into Aries' face, while he tried desperately to keep it from impaling his brain. With all his strength, he moved his arms so that the point of the staff sank into his right shoulder, piercing his flesh painfully and eliciting a bestial growl from him. Using the pain as fuel for his rage, Aries kicked Mugen off him and pulled the staff from his shoulder, using it to stab Mugen through the torso. The blow wasn't fatal, but it was enough to make her reel back in pain. Rolling onto his knees, Aries called Clarent once again, knowing it was his only hope.

Darren, delirious with pain, saw the sword start to float towards its owner and telekinetically pulled on the sword to keep it from reaching Aries. The man growled and called harder, forcing Darren to do the same. They were stuck in a mental tug of war, and the pain was weakening Aries' hold on Clarent. Knowing that Mugen was recovering behind him, Aries knew that he had to act now or else he was dead. Letting go of Clarent for a moment, Aries fired his concussion beam at Darren, who was forced to let go to deflect the beam shot at him.

This allowed Aries to retrieve Clarent just as Mugen got to her feet and leapt at Aries to deal the finishing blow. He spun around as she flew closer to him and swung Clarent as hard as he could.

It all happened in slow motion for Darren. As the smoke cleared around him, he saw Aries slash at Mugen with Clarent, sending an energy wave straight through Mugen's body. Her eyes widened, then he saw her body slowly fall apart, a diagonal cut bisecting her torso. She was cut in half, straight through her Spark core, which leaked out of her body in blue sparkles along with her energon. She was staring at Darren as she fell, her eyes getting dimmer each second. Her last act was to give him one final smile-before her Spark burnt out and she hit the floor.

Darren stared at her body, frozen. His breathing increased, his eyes burning from not blinking at all. His vision went dark as he zeroed in on Mugen's motionless form, before he turned his gaze to Aries, who was forcing himself to his feet. Everything was a blur as he finally reacted in the only way he knew how.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

XXXXXX

Optimus and Pisces circled each other, not taking their eyes away. Their comrades gave them a wide berth so as to not interrupt their commanders. Optimus waited for the right moment, which turned out to be when the Septentrion fired its missiles down on the forest around them.

They charged at each other, punching forward and meeting fists with a resounding boom. Zodiac and Prime grappled each other in a test of strength, trying to overcome one another. Optimus glared into Pisces' glassy eyes and heaved his body to pull Pisces to him. The general was forced forward and actually doubled over as Optimus slammed his knee into his lower abdomen. Prime used this chance to lift Pisces over his body and throw him into the flaming forest.

Despite the size difference, the hypercoil musculature Optimus had granted him immense physical strength that he rarely displayed in battle and Pisces learned firsthand why. He crashed through a couple of burning trees and had red hot cinders falling on him as he slid through the ash covered dirt. Optimus ran at him at full speed and threw a kick at his face. Pisces grabbed his leg and lifted Prime off his foot, slamming him into the ground.

Pisces threw a punch at his face, but Optimus moved his head to let the fist crash into the ground above his shoulder before maneuvering his body into position. In a move he learned from watching Annie spar with Kevin, he grabbed Pisces' arm in an arm lock and wrapped his legs around his shoulder in a vice grip, squeezing as hard as he could. The pressure from his legs alone caused the armor on Pisces' shoulder to crack, and blood to spurt out like a ruptured pipe.

'That's it!' Optimus thought. He felt Pisces trying to gain some leverage on him, but Optimus wasn't having it. He twisted his arm and grappled Pisces' head with his legs, dragging him face first into the ground and began pulling on his arm.

More cracks appeared along his arm, spraying blood everywhere. Pisces was trapped, and when his arm broke, the plates over his mouth slid apart to reveal his sharp teeth, and steam rose from his mouth. Optimus kept pulling as hard as he could, not stopping when he heard the crack of bone, and gave a might roar when he finally tore the arm off. Pisces grunted in pain and hissed steam from his teeth.

The arm went flying into the flames around them and Optimus rolled to the side when Pisces shook him off. The titan growled, hissing steam from his plates. Optimus saw steam rising from his stump as well.

'High pain tolerance and possible regeneration, judging from the lack of blood.' Optimus thought. 'He is strong, but he can be beaten.'

Optimus was brought back to reality when Pisces suddenly appeared in his face. Startled, Optimus was punched in the chest and hit the tree behind him. He ducked under his second punch and fell to the ground to grapple Pisces' other leg, but couldn't get a firm hold. When Pisces tried to cave his face in, he was forced to push himself away and get to his feet. Pisces growled and rushed Optimus again.

'His armor is spread out over his body. It's strong, but a strong enough blow in a single area can shatter it. My grapples did its fair share of damage as well.' Optimus had a plan. 'Sparkplug, I need you to do something for me.'

Pisces lunged at Optimus, who jumped up and did something unexpected. He wrapped his legs around his waist and buried his head under his right arm, pulling Pisces into a headlock and began to squeeze. Pisces choked and fell to his knees and Prime began choking him, constricting his neck in a vice grip that could shatter stone.

"You may be strong, Zodiac, but you're no fighter!" Optimus grunted and wrenched his body backwards. This caused the armor plating on the back of Pisces neck to strain and fracture, cracking his hard skin and blood to spurt out. Pain erupted along his collarbone and Pisces tried to regain his balance. "Now!"

Sparkplug, carrying a vibroblade, ran over Prime's shoulder and swung down, grapping onto Pisces' shoulder and sliced into the back of his left leg, severing the tendons and making Pisces lose his leverage. Unable to move, he slumped forward and Optimus squeezed tighter.

Pisces knew he was in trouble. He couldn't break free and his spine was dangerously close to snapping like a twig. His vision began to darken and when he felt his teeth start to crack, he took action. Using his one hand, he pushed them both across the ground, using his other leg to force himself forward. He used his remaining strength to push them into a clearing. Struggling to loosen the grip on his head, Pisces opened his mouth and gave a tremendous roar.

"You aren't getting out of this one!" Optimus grunted, covered in blood spurting from the Zodiac's back. "This fight is over!"

"Optimus, look out!" Sparkplug yelled.

Optimus wondered what Sparkplug was so worried about…until he saw a small object hover directly over the clearing and fire a giant golden yellow beam down on the two combatants.

XXXXXX

The headmaster invasion of Decepticon Island had devolved into chaos. The Decepticons were massacring headmasters left and right, but the army still persisted. Meanwhile, the ice colossus was still spewing its cloud of cold mist that froze everything that came into contact with it. Time was short, and drastic measures had to be taken, and who better to enact this crazy plan than Megatron himself.

"This is insane!" Thundercracker yelled.

"Shut up and fly, Thundercracker!" Megatron shouted.

Hanging onto the blue Seeker, Megatron braved Mach 2 speeds as they flew into the back of the ice colossus. Megatron waited for the last possible moment before leaping forward into the quick freeze and shooting his fusion cannon at the hard ice. He rushed forward and smashed through the hole he made, tackling the surprised Zodiac from behind and crashing outside through the colossus's chest.

"You're mine, you bitch!" Megatron growled.

"No," Aquarius hissed. "You're mine!"

Aquarius fired two high pressure water jets from her talos's hands, blasting Megatron into the beach and smashing five headmasters underneath. She righted herself on a water spout and hovered over him.

"You're lucky my queen wants you alive, or else I'd taken your head by now!" Aquarius said.

"Like your chains can hold me!" Megatron said. Pointing his fusion cannon at the ground, he fired a plasma beam into the sand and propelled himself at her, a move she clearly wasn't expecting. He cut his blast short and spun in the air, slamming his leg into her unit's right arm. Aquarius grunted as she was thrown around in her seat and wrapped a water tendril around his waist and slammed him into the ground again.

"Don't underestimate me!" She shouted, slamming wave after wave on top of him. "We've won, you backwater warlord! This world belongs to OZ now, and there's nothing you can do about it!"

She froze when she heard a loud explosion behind her and spun her talos around to see her airship nothing but a fireball falling into the ocean. It crashed right through the frozen part of the shoreline she created earlier and sank beneath the waves with a massive splash. Aquarius didn't even bother trying to contact anyone, knowing that everyone onboard the airship was dead.

"What was that you were saying about not being able to do anything?" Megatron chuckled, getting to his feet. "I know what winning looks like, and that's not winning."

"Don't mock me!" Aquarius spun around to attack Megatron again, but she was forced to leap away to avoid an arrow fired from Nightshade. Hissing angrily, she propelled herself at the femme, risked another arrow to her unit's arm before slamming herself into Nightshade and sending them both crashing into the shallow waters on the beach.

"First, I'll take your eyes for my trophies," Aquarius snarled. "Then I'll mount your head on my wall!"

"Nightshade's anything but a house ornament, I'm afraid." A familiar voice said. "She's not worth the extra money."

Aquarius spun around just in time to see Starscream smirking before he fired his null ray at her.

XXXXXX

Darren and Aries fought like animals, and unlike their earlier duel, the results of this one were reversed. Aries found himself fighting defensively as Darren came at him like a wild animal, slashing wildly with strikes enhanced by his telekinesis. His arms began to feel numb and he was covered in blood from the deep cuts Darren managed to land on him.

Something had snapped within Darren. Seeing Mugen killed before his eyes had caused him to go berserk. His powers tore apart anything within striking distance that wasn't bolted down, and threw them at Aries. Aries destroyed the debris thrown at him, but Darren was on him in a flash, smacking Excalibur against Clarent hard enough to knock him back. Then began the second round of their fight, and this time, Aries found himself on the receiving end of a beat down.

Darren delivered fierce strikes to Aries and continued to push him back. His vision was a cloudy haze red with anger, his green eyes were literally glowing, and a silver aura surrounded his body. Aries met each of his attacks head on, but neither warrior could break the other's guard. But what Aries failed to notice was that with each attack, Clarent started to crack along its blade. Another blow and the cracks spread. Darren's attacks got more aggressive and Aries found himself losing ground.

Aries was awestruck as he tried to process how he was losing against a child who barely even mastered his own powers. But he couldn't deny that Darren was steadily pushing him back and it took all of his remaining strength to stay on the ground. He looked down only for a second and saw the spider web of magma red cracks spread across his blade. He realized too late that Clarent couldn't take another hit again…and Darren did just that.

"DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEE!" Darren roared and brought Excalibur across Clarent in a powerful slash…and shattered Clarent with that one hit. The king's sword smashed through Clarent and dug into Aries' chest, leaving a deep bloody gash that cut him to the bone.

Aries stared at Darren in shock as he watched the pieces of Clarent fly apart before his eyes. He felt the intense pain in his chest as Excalibur sliced him across his collarbone, and felt the pain of the metal shards digging into his arms. The built up energy held within Clarent exploded from the shattered blade and blasted Aries and Darren apart. Aries hit the floor on his back and tried to get up, coughing up blood. Then he looked up and saw Darren leaping at him with Excalibur, ready to deal the final blow.

It was a reactionary attack-born out of a desperate need to save his life in a panicked state. Aries fired a beam from his eye and hit Darren in the chest. The beam hit Darren's TK protection and sent him crashing back through the wall, ripping apart the metal wall and into the next room over. Darren hit one of the support pillars and fell face first to the ground, Excalibur landing a few feet from him.

Aries spat out a glob of blood and limped over to Darren, jumping through the hole and slowly edging towards him, holding a hand to the profusely bleeding cut on his chest. His measured and calm gaze was now wide with anger. He had enough of this.

"What did you think you could do? You, a lone esper boy, a couple of Minicons and five brain dead Autobots against my army. OZ has been around for over a century, with us guiding it along its path of nobility. And in another century we will be praised as heroes for ridding the galaxy of the cybertronian scourge." Aries panted.

Darren groaned, lifting his head to glared daggers at him. That's when he noticed a piece of metal behind Aries-two pieces of Mugen's armor.

"I should've killed you that night. You and your sisters, just to make sure your bloodline will never bother me again." Aries continued. His third eye began to glow as he charged up the killing blow. "Luckily, Gaia has shown favor for me to give me a second chance."

"Then you better make this shot count," Darren hissed. "Because you'll never get a second chance."

Aries growled and inhaled. Darren waited until he saw the third eye glowed brighter before clenching his fist. The armor pieces flew up and wrapped around Aries' head just as he was about to fire his beam. The lack of clearance in his eye caused the energy to build up and detonate within the small space-which was Aries' head. This caused a massive explosion that engulfed Aries and blew Darren back. Through the smoke, he saw that all that was left of Aries was a crater and nothing else. Not even his ashes survived.

I told you you'd never get a second chance." Darren spat. Drawing Excalibur to himself, Darren used it to push himself up to his feet and slowly limped over to the hub, looking up at the heads. With an agonized shout, he slashed apart the cables to Barricade's head, disconnecting the headmaster network to him. Barricade's eyes flickered before finally going dark.

He went over to Sunstreaker's head and started crying when he saw Mugen's body. "Listen, Sunstreaker, I'm sorry. Chances are you already know that. But…what I do now I do because I'm out of options, and maybe so are you." He raised Excalibur. "What was it you said? Every moment, a little bit of me dies? It's better this way."

Darren brought Excalibur down on the cables and severed them in a fountain of electrical sparks. With the connection cut, the light in Sunstreaker's eyes went dark and Darren only felt silence in his head.

XXXXXX

Before moving out with the operation, Pisces had developed a powerful weapon called Damocles, a solar cannon that drew power from solar cells built into the ship that stored energy to fire a high powered particle beam that grew in size and power the longer it traveled through the atmosphere. He intended it to be his trump card against the Ark, but with Optimus seconds away from ripping his head off, he was forced to have the cannon fire on his positon. With his armor, he could survive the blast, but Optimus would not.

Sparkplug was blown off his feet when the beam hit Optimus and Pisces, and he hit his head on a tree. He blacked out for a few seconds, but quickly recovered. He ran over to the crater where the beam hit and was horrified to see that Pisces was climbing out, covered in blood and moving slower than usual, but unharmed otherwise.

Smoke rose off is form and steam leaked from his wounds. Pisces looked weak and felt weak; Prime's assault on his body was taking its toll and another fight like that would cause his titan body to involuntarily disperse. Pisces looked over at Sparkplug and growled. If he was going to lose, then at least he would get his share of blood tonight. He stomped for the Minicon to crush him under foot, only to hear the powering up of blasters behind him.

"Don't move freak."

The other Autobots had surrounded him, most were heavily damaged but were still alive and were very, very angry. Tomahawk and Skyfire were hovering above him, and behind them, up in the sky, his precious airship finally succumbed to its damages and slowly fell out of the sky. Particle beams from the Ark tore apart the ship as it hit the ground and the vessel exploded in a brilliant fireball that actually made the ground shake.

Pisces blinked in confusion and looked around at the burning forest. Where were the headmasters? Surely, the Autobots couldn't have defeated them so quickly.

He got his answer when he saw all of the headmasters lying on the ground, their eyes dark and motionless. Many were destroyed by the Autobots, but even the ones that were operational seconds before were now inactive. This could only mean that the connection from central base was compromised, that was the only answer.

Aries!' Pisces growled.

"Surprised?" Ironhide smirked. "Turns out your toys aren't so fancy after all."

Pisces roared and prepared to issue a recall from the MASS device, but before he could perform his signal, he was grabbed from behind in a headlock, his one arm pulled behind his back to restrain it. He couldn't move his head, but he instantly knew that it had to be Prime. The Autobot leader had survived the particle beam and was missing a few pieces of armor with some severed burns along his form, but it didn't temper his strength at all.

"Surrender now or I'll be forced to finish our fight!" Optimus growled in his ear and tightened his hold on Pisces' neck, once again on the verge of ripping his head from his shoulders. "Don't make this a last stand."

Pisces felt the hold on his neck increasing in strength and felt his bones start to creak. He only had seconds to escape and now was the time. Letting exhaustion take hold of him, Pisces' body erupted in a cloud of scalding hot steam that blinded the Autobots. Optimus felt his grip on Pisces vanish, and Arcee and Jazz rushed forward to capture the Zodiac. But when they cut through the smoke, they found that Pisces was completely gone.

"What the bloody hell was that?" Jetfire asked.

"Did he teleport?"

"No, this was something else." Optimus said and shook his head. He looked down at the deactivated clones and saw that one by one they were all disappearing in flashes of green energy. Pisces, who had used his steam cover to retreat into the trees and issue the mass recall also vanished back to his secondary base in the McCullen castle. Seeing that their enemies were basically retreating, Optimus sagged in relief and exhaustion. "Autobots, we need to heal up and go help the Dynobots."

"They must've done something right if these ugly buggers just fainted." Jetfire kicked a decapitated headmaster in the face. "Creepy fraggers."

XXXXXX

The null blast had completely shorted out the Codarl's systems and it went dead in the air almost immediately. Aquarius, knowing her talos was useless now, blasted her hatch open and jumped out of the cockpit before two missiles blew her machine apart. She summoned a water spout to quickly get her out to see and away from the three very angry Decepticons.

"Why are you running?" Starscream cackled. "Where's all that pompous bravado from before?"

"Shut it, machine! I still have my army!" Aquarius yelled back.

"Not anymore." Nightshade smirked.

Aquarius looked to the beach and saw that her headmaster army had all been deactivated. The Barricade clones were strewn across the ground like a field of corpses and didn't respond to her commands. "No…no!"

Aquarius lashed out with a powerful wave in all directions, throwing water spikes at Starscream, only to hastily put up an ice barrier to block the arrow from Nightshade. She fell back into the water and surfed along the beach, sending water blasts and drills at all the Decepticons, though they mostly had her on the run from their heavy weapons fire. She tried calling OZ central for recall, but all she got was static.

"Central base pick me up now, damn it! I need a recall!" Aquarius shouted. "Help me out here you fools!"

"No one's going to save you now!"

Aquarius spun around and saw the barrel of Megatron's fusion cannon pointed at her face. She screamed as the cannon lit up and fired its beam, consuming her body and vaporizing her on the spot. Megatron felt satisfied at being able to kill the human that caused so much damage to his island. Still, there was another problem he needed to address.

"You've been busy when I was sleeping." Starscream smirked.

"Starscream…" Megatron growled. Starscream held up his hands, which held Terradive and Stormwing powerlinked to him.

"Rest assured, I have seen the error of my ways. I humbly apologize for my actions in trying to usurp your rule." Starscream said, disengaging the Minicons to show that he was genuine…mostly. "I'm afraid desperate times led to my cohorts attempting drastic measures."

"I can see that." Megatron glared daggers at Skywarp. "We'll speak more of this in private. Right now, we need to salvage this mess!"

Nightshade looked over the field of Barricade clones and burned the image into her mind. This was the second time OZ nearly had them on the ropes, and using their own technology as well. Another close call, another almost victory. How many of these will they get before they're finally run off the island?

"Lieutenant," Demolishor walked up to her, covered in burns and blaster marks along his chest and shoulders. "Are you all right?"

"Yes, I'm fine. Just…lamenting." She said.

"Why? We won, didn't we?" He asked.

"Just barely. Just like the other times, we get out by chance or luck, and with our ship worse off than it already is." Nightshade scowled. "No, we didn't win, Demolishor…we survived."

XXXXXX

At the OZ base, the Dynobots were just as confused as the others. One minute they were fighting another horde of headmasters, and the next, the clones all flopped to the ground like someone pulled out their batteries.

"What…just happened?" Grimlock asked, extremely puzzled.

"I suspect…" Rodimus came limping over to them with the Minicons at his feet. "Sunstreaker pulled the plug on himself."

"Huh?" Swoop asked.

"It's complicated." Nightscream said.

"Ha! How about that? We won!" Sludge laughed and raised his hammer in victory. "We actually-"

Sludge was cut short when a beam hit him in the chest. Though his armor wasn't damaged that much, the sudden surge it sent through his neural circuitry caused him to fall into stasis lock and forced his Spark to suddenly short out. He fell to the ground before his stunned teammates.

"Sludge?" Grimlock whispered.

"I should have done that a long time ago." Thornment stepped off the elevator lift with Scorpio in his giant scorpion talos, its tail cannon smoking from its recent shot. "You've ruined my day too many times, but there's always revenge. Sweet, languorous revenge."

"Yes!" A giant chrome jet flew in from above, transforming into a massive mech and landing hard on the ground. "But it shall be mine!"

"Sprawl?" Slag exclaimed.

Once again caught in an impossible situation, Rodimus sighed. "Oh brother."


	44. La Vita Nova

Chapter 44-La Vita Nova

Sludge's body lay still before Grimlock who stared down at him in shock. Grimlock felt a cold feeling wash over his Spark, a feeling not felt since losing Skaar-sadness. But unlike before, Grimlock felt all the blame rested on his shoulders alone.

"Grimlock!" Snarl pushed him out of the way of a particle beam. "Move or you'll be joining him!"

"You animals have ruined everything!" Thornment raged. "But I can still build it back up. I am on a divine mission, and I will not be denied!"

She fired another beam that blasted Grimlock and Snarl apart, but she was forced to retreat as two missiles hit the ground near her. Sprawl hovered above her, shooting his laser guns at her to chase her away.

"I told you, Thornment-back off!" Sprawl said. "Vengeance is mine and mine alone!"

"Aww gee," Rodimus drawled, using Slag's sword as a cane. "Isn't it great to be so in demand?"

"See, generally its easier keeping tags on who we haven't ticked off." Slag said.

Swoop said. "It's the Dynobot way."

Thornment chased after Sprawl in her aircraft mode, firing her particle cannon repeatedly. "Vengeance? What do you know about vengeance, Sprawl? You're too busy screwing around with those plebeians, trying to eek out a meager existence!"

"When you're as old as I am, you find mundane things to be boring!" Sprawl fired his guns at her. "But unlike you, I don't chase around imaginary beings to justify my growing insanity!"

"How dare you!"

"This is our chance." Snarl said to Grimlock, watching the chaotic fight raging above them. "While they're busy fighting out whose grudge is bigger, we can slip away."

"No." Grimlock said bluntly. Snarl blinked at him.

"No? Okay, look-Sludge got his circuits crispy fried, sure, but that goes with the territory." Snarl said. "We don't do recriminations and we never, ever get all band of brothers."

"I know, Snarl, I know. More's the pity, because if we did, this might actually mean something." Grimlock knelt down and placed a hand on Sludge's chest, as if searching for a Sparkpulse. "Instead, it's just another meaningless statistic in a miserable excuse for a life. Everything I've ever done has accounted to exactly nothing. In the past, I've got by on bad attitude alone, but…it's just not enough."

Grimlock clenched his fist and stood up. "You go. Take the others with you. I'm seeing this through to the bitter end! It may be long overdue but I'm finally taking responsibility."

Snarl shook his head and ran back to the other Dynobots. "Let's go. Signal Prime. Have him bridge us back to the Ark."

"Grimlock?" Swoop inquired.

"No." Snarl sighed. "He's having what you might call…an accountable moment."

Slag looked at Rodimus and the Minicons. "You coming with us?"

"Thanks, but I've got some unfinished business of my own." Rodimus said.

"Look at yourself, Rodimus. You're not in any much shape for a fight."

"There is no more fight." Night Scream said. "Two of our friends are in there. They're the ones who saved the day and we're going to get them."

Slag could only shake his head, but he gave the odd group a nod. "You Autobots, suicidal to the end."

Rodimus smirked. "Why do you think they call me Hot Rod?"

XXXXXX

The sun was just beginning to rise after quite possibly the longest night in Agent Red's career. He was in a Skywatch mobile unit hearing some updates on their robotic bloodhound.

"Agent Red, we have confirmation from out Sioux field unit," A soldier reported. "Seekers one and two have been re-acquired at the exact coordinates Sprawl supplied."

"Status?" Red asked.

"Fully immobilized. Higher functions offline."

"Two down," Red sighed. "What's the latest from Dallas?"

"Sprawl has engaged an unidentified NBE in the Epsilon compound in Irving."

"The first twenty-four hour period is almost up." A tactical officer said. "Should I transmit the disarm code?"

"Hold off until the last possible moment. I want them all, a clean sweep." Red glanced at the computer screen showing a diaphragm of Sprawl's head. "If it's done, let the cranial charge detonate, if not, reset."

XXXXXX

Skaar's death had haunted Grimlock for a long time. Back on that day, Grimlock was in a position to save Skaar from that terrible quake, but he was busy trying to kill Sprawl for a cheap shot dealt to him earlier that day. He had a chance to save him, but lost those precious few seconds because of his rage. Grimlock liked to think it was all Sprawl's fault, but some blame rested on his shoulders. Just like dragging Sludge to his death. But this time, things would be different.

He knelt by Sludge's body, his chest plate open to reveal his Spark core, which had cables leading from it to Sludge's chest. Slamming his fist into Sludge's chest, Grimlock used his Spark energy to jump start Sludge's Spark like a defibrillator. It was a risky move since it could've killed Grimlock in the attempt, but he wasn't going to let another mech die on his watch.

"Take it! Take everything!" Grimlock shouted, channeling as much power into his friend as possible. "Whatever I am, the entirety of me…it's all yours! Live, damn you, live!"

Meanwhile, the fight between Sprawl and Thornment continued. Now in robot mode, they dueled with blasters and electrified heat rods and dealt each other moderate wounds that didn't slow them down.

"I've heard of your so-called Order. You think you're above everything, that your gods will protect you, but you're wrong!" Sprawl said. His hissed as one of her heat rod dragged against his chest painfully and backhanded her to get some breathing room. "You people are no better than any other cult out there. Religious nuts using god to justify your sociopathic habits!"

Sprawl fired his pulse cannon into Thornment's chest and grabbed her head. He threw her to the ground and stomped on her chest to pin her down.

"I'm…more powerful that you," She hissed. "I…will…"

"Yield." Sprawl pointed his cannon at her face. "At this distance, a focused ion blast will tear through your chest and obliterate your Spark completely. Since I'm not on a mission to torch you, despite my urges, you'd do well to stand down immediately."

Thornment considered her options and retracted her heat rods. "Fine."

Sprawl lifted his foot off her and allowed her to stand. "You have an exit strategy?"

"Of course."

"Then use it."

"No!" Grimlock stomped toward them in beast mode. "I may not have been able to save Sludge, but I can still avenge him!"

"Not likely." Thornment issued the recall and felt the MASS device take hold of her body. She disappeared in an energy vortex before Grimlock would reach her.

"No, no, no, no, no!" Grimlock roared.

"Ten thousand, three hundred and ninety-six years, two months and three days." Sprawl stalked toward Grimlock, barely retrained anger in his voice. "That is what you cost me. This is the debt."

"Yeah? Well, the humans have an expression," Grimlock charged at Sprawl and slammed his head into Sprawl's chest. "Payback's a bitch!"

The two heavy-set mechs fought in a mess of teeth and fists, rolling amongst the rubble and dead headmasters that littered the courtyard. But unknown to the Dynobots, Sprawl's temporary partner in crime who was sitting in a cave a few states over was Soundwave, waiting for his opportunity to return to his mighty form.

XXXXXX

" _You understand, Soundwave, timing is everything."_

" _Of course," He answered. "Just make sure that while I am cloning the Skywatch disarm code, you are simultaneous making good on your end of the bargain."_

 _Sprawl chuckled and reached down to pluck Soundwave's tiny alt mode from the ground. "Ironic, isn't it? You find yourself locked in the most limited alt mode courtesy of a weapon designed by Shockwave. No matter, soon we shall be whole again."_

XXXXXX

"Even though fightin' Sprawl is what got us into this mess, I still feel the urge to bite off his head." Snarl said.

"Same here." Slag nodded.

"Well, the aye's have it." Swoop said. "Let's-"

"Er, guys?" Everyone turned to see Sludge walking over to him, rubbing the back of his head groggily. "What's going on?"

Sprawl threw Grimlock into a pile of rubble and ran at him. Grimlock burst out of the rocks and sank his teeth into Sprawl's leg. Sprawl tried to shake him off and lifted his cannon arm, only for the massive form of Sludge to rush him from behind.

"Miss us?" Sludge yelled.

Sprawl growled and swung a fist at the large Dynobot, but Sludge transformed and took out his massive hammer, which he then slammed into Sprawl's chest. The blow left a sizeable dent in his chest plate and knocked him back into Slag, who sliced his thermal sword into his arm. Sprawl took him out with a punch to the head, but Snarl came at him from behind with a flurry of punches to his chest that left him dazed and in pain. His visor cracked and his computerized brain became a jumbled mess of static as Snarl unleashed the full force of his fury onto him.

Realizing that he could actually die from this assault, Sprawl grabbed Snarl's arm in his next punch and threw him into Sludge, only for Grimlock to ram into him again in robot mode. Both mechs crashed through a wall and into a hidden munitions facility. As Sprawl grappled with the Dynobot leader, he felt Skywatch transmitting the disarm code to his internal bomb and knew it was game time.

Halfway across the country, Soundwave intercepted the disarm code for himself and automatically began translating it to disable the virus on his T-cog. Sprawl gave him a quick rundown on how to use it to cleanse his T-cog of the virus lock and in only a few seconds, Soundwave transformed back into his natural form.

"Freedom!" Soundwave exclaimed. "Ravage, Laserbeak, awaken!"

His bestial proxies awoke from their induced power down and quickly mauled the Skywatch unit near them. Soundwave contacted Sprawl, informing him of the conclusion of their partnership.

'Fine by me.' Sprawl sent back as he threw Grimlock into a wall. "This is getting old, Grimlock. I could care less about satisfying your barbaric urges." Sprawl said. "If you follow me or continue harassing me, I'll kill you. Stay out of my business and-"

"Never." Grimlock said and dropped something on the ground. "This ends only one way."

Sprawl stared at the explosive device in shock, then to the warheads around them. "What have you done?"

Grimlock smirked. "What I do best."

Agent Red's chopper just made it to the Epsilon facility and was scanning the ground for signs of his alien resources. Sadly, he would get an unwelcome wakeup call when the building the chopper was flying over suddenly exploded into a towering pillar of fire that reached into the sky. The explosion would be heard for miles and signaled the end to the explosively long night of death and destruction that raged across the entire country.

XXXXXX

In the days that followed what the Autobots were now calling the Headmaster War, the unholy night in which enemies and allies were forced to survive against the headmaster army, both sides were recovering from the even in their own way. The Autobots had survived, though their ship was damaged, and the forest they resided in was little more than burnt trees and ash piles for nearly a mile thanks to the crater the airship left in its destruction. The ground was also littered with the bodies of the slain headmasters that Bulkhead and Wheeljack had to scavenge for parts afterwards.

As for the Autobots themselves, they were dealing with the aftermath in their own ways. Grimlock returned to the Ark badly damaged from his explosive conclusion in his fight with Sprawl, but he and the Dynobots were alive and well, as was Rodimus. Sprawl himself was nowhere to be found when the Autobots and Minicons cleaned out the OZ base from the inside out. Rodimus had informed Optimus of OZ's attempt to expose and subvert Skywatch, the secret government organization that had been nipping at their heels without them noticing; yet another concern to add to their long list of problems.

As for Darren and Sunstreaker, they were dealing with their shared nightmare in their own way.

"He's traumatized and in need of a lot of CR time, but he'll mend." Ratchet said after giving his diagnosis. "Though physically separated, OZ scientists knew enough to keep his torso intact for his Spark to sustain him."

"Knowledge gleaned from what Thornment and those rogue Minicons gave them before ripping him apart." Lifeline spat. "Those savages."

Ratchet looked down at Darren, who still looked a bit pale and tired, having had some problems having a decent night's sleep since returning to the Ark. The boy was staring at Sunstreaker's body as he floated unconscious in the CR chamber. There were still visible seams where Ratchet patched his face and torso up with pieces of metal during the recovery operation. The operation should've only taken a day, but Ratchet also had to deal with the mental connection Sunstreaker and Darren still shared.

"Ratchet," Darren said softly, looking back at the medic. "Am I…are we…?"

"I've been able to dampen the positronic feed so you don't keep hearing his thoughts, but…" Ratchet shook his head. "I simply don't know enough about the technology to risk removing your implants."

Darren rubbed his arms, where thin blue lines were visible just under his skin where the hard points that connected his body to his headmaster exo-carapace used to be. His could still feel an echo of Sunstreaker within his mind, and he wondered just how merged were their minds after being bonded for so long. Did their personalities carry into each other? Were their mental side effects to worry about?

Darren risked a glance at the small medical slab where Mugen's body rested under a sheet and felt his eyes tear up a bit. When Rodimus and the Minicons found him in OZ's underground base, they found him cradling her still body crying hysterically, begging them to help her. He carried her into the Ark himself and hadn't said a word to anybody else until the surgery. Razor was heartbroken and the Minicons had a funeral service for her before cremating her body out by the lake. Razor thanked him for helping Mugen in the end.

" _Mugen's in a better place, now."_ Razor said, smiling sadly. _"She's with Overrun now. She's at peace."_

Despite this, Darren could still see images of her death flashing through his mind and he clenched his fist. He wouldn't be sleeping well for the next few weeks, if ever.

"What am I now? After all that, I feel like half of me is missing." Darren looked at his hands. "I'm…not even sure who I am anymore."

"You're Darren Radcliffe. Our friend."

Darren looked up and saw High Wire, his team, and the girls standing there. Annie and Debbie ran to engulf their brother in a tight hug, while Gina nearly knocked him over when she jumped into his arms and kissed him passionately. She made sure to make it last.

"I missed you so much!" Gina smiled, rubbing at her teary eyes.

"Speak for yourself!" Debbie laughed, still crying. "I missed him more!"

"I told you he was still alive!" Annie bragged, though she looked just as teary as the others. "Welcome back, Darren."

Darren felt two lithe arms wrap around his shoulders from behind and saw Sara giving her own hug to comfort him. She was even smiling, though it was small. High Wire, Grindor and Sureshock also invited themselves for a hug of their own, and he welcome them with open arms.

He was home again.

XXXXXX

On the other side of the room, Optimus and Prowl watched the happy reunion with heavy Sparks.

"We barely made it this time, Prime. OZ nearly tore us to shreds, and this was just from capturing Sunstreaker and Barricade." Prowl said.

"I know. OZ's threat level has just increased with Thornment helping them shorten our technological superiority over them. And the mental scars Sunstreaker will carry will stay with him for the rest of his life." Optimus said. Sideswipe was going to be livid when he learned of what happened. "Is Wheeljack still with the Dynobots?"

"Yes, they're still working on repairing the Grimstone. Grimlock's almost fully recovered, so they're moving faster now." Prowl told him, but then said, "But Prime, we're in a precarious position. I've done what I could to remove any trace of our presence and purged the facility, but this outfit, Skywatch, they know a lot about us."

"Keeping a low profile is going to be near impossible after Grimlock's rampage in Fallon. People are still talking about that, the Dynobots fighting in broad daylight, and the massive battle at the OZ base that lit the place up like a fireworks show. Maintaining secrecy will be even harder now." Sparkplug said. "What are we going to do?"

"With recent events, it has become clear that we cannot operate the way we usually do. With the involvement of Skywatch, and the Osean government possibly aware of our presence, it may be detrimental to continue in secrecy." Optimus said.

Prowl's eyes widened, realizing what he meant. "Prime, surely you can't be suggesting that we…?"

"If we try to continue as we always have, we risk antagonizing the government and humanity at large. We can't give OZ any more ammunition to use against us." Optimus said with a grim expression. "It's in situations like these that we must adapt to the problem to find a solution."

"So what is your plan?" Sparkplug asked.

Turning to his tactician and Minicon friend, Optimus said, "The world must know of the war we have dragged humanity into, and prepare them for the harrowing battles ahead. They must know that they are not alone in the universe. We must reveal ourselves to Terra."

 **End of Book 2**

* * *

 **That's it for book 2: Escalation. Now we can finally get into the new stuff, and I promise you, Book 3 is going to be nuts! Thanks to all the new and old readers** **who tolerated me revising books 1 and 2. Your support is my Ore-13 power up! Stay tuned for the third and final update to the interlude, New Developments** **and after that, the first chapter of Transformers Titan: Devastation. Be sure to check out the Transformers Titan website on Wordpress. Link is in my Archive of Our Own profile, Saya444. Thanks for reading, and please leave a review.**


End file.
